Realm - Dark Winds of Asuras demo I August 1997
1) Fallen Skies
2) Blood of the Imperial Night
3) Kingdom of Nightfall
4) Master of Centuries Black
4shared / Yandex
I thought I'd start August off with something slightly more exotic again and I must say I love that yellow cover! So sunny and summerlike feeling! Maybe it's quite inappropriate for a black metal band's demo, but one must admit it is very striking. And it's not even any sort of druggy wanna-be-industrial sort of thing, no, this is Realm of Singapore who play pure & honest black metal. This was again contributed by our easternmost cohort Morbid Chanter, rip and cover. It seems like this was the only demo released under this monicker as the mastermind of the project Night changed the name to Netherealm quite soon after the demo was released and the recording line-up fell apart.
Pretty good, loud sound. Not very clear perhaps, but it's not a negative thing. Pound-pound-pounding drums that sound almost tribal at times, grating and ever-so-slightly buzzy guitar, bass very much audible but firmly on the sidelines and good, raw vocals almost "properly" sung and supported by slightly dirtier, lewd screams and raspy howls plus a smattering of clean (spoken) session vocals on the final song. Acoustic passages and atmospheric breaks mix things up. This is one of those pieces that are somewhat more metal than black while remaining black metal if you know what I mean? And they manage it naturally, not sounding retro-this or old school-that for the sake of hooking up with Osmose or who had you back then releasing all that neothrash. It's quite long for a four song demo, over 25 minutes, much of which is taken by the epic last track. I like this, more than the split made with Austrian Seraph that followed, as Netherealm. That one suffered from the lack of a full line-up I believe. Recommended even if you can't stand yellow!
4 kommenttia:
Ha! Funny you lead with a remark about the yellow cover. My first reaction when I opened the page: gotta hear this, you never see a yellow and red BM cover. From Singapore no less. Thanks in advance of listening to Morbid Chanter and our ever courageous host.
@kp:
Yeah, ain't it precious! :D I thought I should've uploaded it already around spring, Easter to be more specific, but I sort of forgot about it then. As an aside, isn't Morbid Chanter an awesome pseudonym? Makes me think Greek black metal first but fits nicely to South American style stuff too... or old Singapore/Malay... well basically all old schoolish sort of black metal! Not frosty Nordic stuff really. Full version was "Morbid Chanter of the Satanic Rites of Devil Worship" though which is really Blasphemy sort of name! Way to get sidetracked, Velkaarn.
OK mssrs Chanter and Velkaarn, are we sure this isn't a Ramones session with BM vocals replacing Joey's? At least the first three tracks. Interesting. Would be more interesting to my ear if the drummer offered more variety than the hammering-a-roof-on-the-garden-shed thing. But no worries, I still like you guys. And the yellow cover.
@kingpossum:
Yeah, the drumming might not have variation but at least the sound is, to my ears, more pleasant than on the otherwise neatly studio-produced Moonstruck demo I just posted! Last track stands out from the rest certainly. I like the going on the first track but perhaps it needn't carry on as is for quite as long.
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