Sanatorium - Necrologue demo '98

Sanatorium - Necrologue demo III 1998
1) Necrologue Written in Forest
2) Bloody Wounds
3) Desolated Areas of the Forgotten Pain
4) Cemetery of Memories
5) Rivers of the Black Sun
6) Č. Č. K. Č. Č

 Zippyshare / 4shared

Death metal for change. Ok, today's item is not really that exciting as there have been rips of it available online since people started digitizing tapes I guess, but I still decided to upload mine as it came out pretty okay and I had bothered to make it in the first place! Not really purposefully though, this third tape recording of the Slovakian death metal band Sanatorium was the second item on a tape I was ripping in ...late '13 apparently! You can also pick up a copy quite cheaply on Discogs or somewhere and if you do, scan the covers for me.

Right, enough of your piteous attempts at justifying today's post, just get on with the program. As said, third release of Sanatorium and last before their debut album which was also the last in their old style of... ugh I hate trying to subcategorize death metal with my poor grasp of its nuances, well someone said thrash/grind mixture with touches of black/death metal so let's go with that! This incarnation of Sanatorium was notable for the atmospheric parts and melodic bits amidst all the technical wankery prowess and that stop-and-go zigzag stuff... breaks.. whatever as well as the lyrics being more on the if not poetic at least introspective and gloomy vein. On the second album and the subsequent ones, all released post-millennium, they went full-retard gore-soaked juvenile misogynic dumb brutal death metal which as you might guess I do not think very highly of. Not that I'd actually heard anything after "Internal Womb Cannibalism" but I possess just enough mental agility to at least leap very nimbly into conclusions. I must admit the indecipherable sewer gurgle vocals are amusing in scarce doses, now that I revisit IWC but it's still not my thing.

Back to what we have here, six tracks in ye olde 17ish minutes playtime which was oddly common among demos, meaning some of the tracks are quite short and actually I see the last two marked as bonuses, Rivers... being from the first demo "Subcultures" which I haven't heard and Č. Č. K. Č. Č is... special. The sound is quite good, very airy even returning to this after crawling through the mucky sewer tube of IWC, a bit light but that gives more room of the instruments to do their thing and fits the more melodic moments better. The ample fast parts also do not sound cluttered and messy which is a bonus. I must admit it goes a bit more bouncy and Primus than I really care for from time to time. And beginning of Desolated... is pure Maiden until it isn't. And then again it is, if Iron Maiden used raspy black metallish vocals mind you. Gallop gallop gallop. Now that I think about it more, this is actually pretty cheery when it's not too complex or melancholic. Schizophrenic and all over the place? Enough rambling, have a listen if all that made you curious. I don't know whom to recommend it really but I guess various kinds of people may get something out of it. What a horrible way to end a post.