December Wolves - Rehearsal 1994

December Wolves - Rehearsal 1994
1) The Towers of My Cold Stone Dwelling over the Mountains and Cliffside Landscapes

Mediafire / RGhost

I wanted to do a post today but since I'm a bit in a hurry it's time for another short one, here's an item I've left festering in a crypt again for longer than intended, a 1994 one song rehearsal tape by December Wolves. I think this predates the demo, but since all info I had was "rehearsal 1994" I can't say much else. Tape trader loot as expected and there's no cover, I just felt like making a placeholder in the spirit of the "Wolftread" tape. The pic was one of the members but I forgot which one.

One song only, but since this is the longest of the old bits it's still ten minutes. Sound is good for rehearsal and all elements are in place. Obviously it's not as clear as the cassette EP version. If you've heard the other older DW stuff you have an idea what this sounds like. Ok, it's epic US black metal influenced by the Scandinavians, more old Satyricon than Darkthrone to roughly put it. I really need to get going, so I recommend more listening & less reading for now!

December Wolves - We Are Everywhere

December Wolves - We Are Everywhere Promo 1997
1) We Are Everywhere
2) ...Not With Tainted Blood

Narod

Here is the hard-to-find 1997 CD promo of December Wolves, I recently got an original copy of it and ripped it to replace the cassette rip I almost uploaded here. Scans of the covers are included. This is also last of the December Wolves releases I'm into, I don't care too much for their last two full lenghts, even if these songs are included on "Completely Dehumanized." These versions were recorded in late 1996.

This is a transition piece between the old, atmospheric black metal and the later modern black/deathrash style, good sound and good songs. Should be enjoyable to both camps of December Wolves listeners. Recommended to others as well.

December Wolves - 'Til Ten Years CD 1996

December Wolves - 'Til Ten Years CD 1996
1) Ode To The Master Therion
2) The Night That I Died
3) Our Centuries Have Been Found
4) Lycanthropy : Yonder Through The IceStorms
5) 'Til Ten Years
6) Whence The Clouds Cry
7) Outro

Narod

I think the December Wolves debut album is pretty hard to find these days, released as it was by the South Korean Hammerheart Productions so I thought I might rip & upload it here. My copy was the strange double digifile version shared with Poccolus, kind of a mixed deal as I got two nice albums but not the booklets.

The music on this album is a bit different to the demo and very different to the two later albums which moved into more post-black metal or whatever territory. Here the moods are folky (well, the 3rd song is basically neofolk) and the metal feels geared more to the pagan and "European" direction than your average usbm. Unfortunately the bass drum sound & mix take away a bit from the enjoyability and as (in my opinion) the weakest track "Ode To The Master Therion" has been placed as the cumbersome 8 minute opener, it can be a bit hard to start listening to this album. Don't give up, however, it gets much better as it proceeds! Give it a try, it's worth it.

December Wolves - Wolftread 1994

December Wolves (us) - Wolftread Demo 1994 (aka Cassette EP)
1. Towers... (Intro)
2. The Towers Of My Cold Stone Dwelling Over The Mountains And Cliffside Landscapes
3. ´Neath Our War Hammer
4. Throughout The Midnight Mist

Updated links with covers courtesy of Matt! Hails!

The first release by the US black metallers December Wolves. I got a dub of this one from Scott in 1996(? ...or 1995?) and unfortunately he did not include a cover so we had to do with the Metal Archives image... until I was provided with cover images by Metal Matt, thanks bro!

Ripped by yours truly and I think the quality is quite listenable. As for the music goes, I think this tape (referred to as a Cassette EP back in the day, instead of a demo) is better than much of the other DW material.

Seems to be very hard to find on the Inter Nets, so I thought I might as well start with this one.