Funeral Frost - Studio Tape 14.10.95

Funeral Frost - Studio Tape 14th October 1995
1) Far Beyond the Raven Star
2) Queen of Frost

Yandex / RGhost

Happy Cirno day everyone! I had originally planned to do another thing but as that got delayed I decided to delay it further and post instead something more appropriate to the date (more musicwise than numerically this time) and turns out it is again Swedish material; here's Funeral Frost with a very short and pretty obscure recording from fall '95. Brother Grev had gotten this from who knows where (well, he might) back in tape trading days and eventually dubbed it to me already two years ago. Sheesh, time flies! Recorded between their Demo 2 (early summer '95) and the only album "Queen of Frost" (January '96 - that cover art!) I suppose this thing was dubbed to people they were in touch with to showcase new material. I've no idea if there was a cover or not, most likely the latter option. There was an "official advance tape" of four songs from the album sessions sent around in early '96 which had one but then again it was sent as a promo to various 'zines and such.

Let's discuss the content, as mentioned both songs are (ok, were) new and would later be recorded for the album as well. Far Beyond the Raven Star is the longer one, and actually the longest on the album's black metal part too, at just over four minutes while the future title track is a short under two minute mark burst. The sound is good, definitely more of a demo sound than rehearsal, not as cold and raw as the album version and as the percussion is lower some elements like the synth are actually more audible. Musically these two tracks cover pretty much their whole repertoire as ...Raven Star is a slower, more atmospheric piece while Queen... represents the fast, ferocious and brief segment though it does have a slow atmospheric break too. If you're into old, cold and northern black metal but not familiar with Funeral Frost by now this might be a decent place to start with. At least it does not take too much of your time! Those in the knowing should also check out these versions as they sound different enough to merit the effort.