Shadowcaster - To Gather My Thoughts Among the Sleeping Summer Spirits promo 1994

Shadowcaster - To Gather My Thoughts Among the Sleeping Summer Spirits promo II 1994
1) Journey Across the Vast Psychedelic Landscape to the Darkness Beyond (Hallucinations with No Color)
2) Comfort Amongst the Desecrated Graves
3) Fearless and Surreal
    1st Movement: Pain's Chaos Creeps Into Me
    2nd Movement: Hallucinations and Stimulations
    3rd Movement: Prolonged Aftermath, Then Solitude
4) The Marches of Madness (Battle Sigh)  (9:03)
5) The Essence of Tragedy (The Descent of Inanna - Part I)  (8:16)
6) When the Sun and the Light Have Vanished  (10:58)
     Part One: The Triumphant Night Conquers the Day
     Part Two: Hymn to the Nocturnal Creatures
7) Outro: Overture

 Mediafire

The second Shadowcaster demo, also Mikael's rip. See here for more details. Cover scan included.

Basically everything, including the track titles, is here longer. And weirder. And there's loads of the vocal effects I hate with passion. It just doesn't work for me but see if you find it listenable. Actually, I can bear it better by skipping the first track which is probably the worst offender with the effected ultra-annoying voices. Still, I can't say I'd really enjoy it. As with the previous tape, some of the tracks were later used for the albums. Check it out if you feel courageous.

Shadowcaster - My Love Affair with Death and Melancholy promo 94

Shadowcaster - My Love Affair with Death and Melancholy promo I 1994
1) My Summoning of the Darkest Princess (Embrace Me)
2) He Is Ever Melancholy
3) Sumerian Symphony No. 1 (Inanna: The Lady of the Evening)
4) Sumerian Symphony No. 2 (The Projection of My Thoughts)
5) I Am Truly Free: The Blackness Within

Depositfiles

More non-metal stuff, like I sort of promised earlier I'm posting Mikael's Shadowcaster promos. These can be found also on his own blog and they are his rips. If you're interested in further background information, I suggest reading his blog. Full cover scan included.

This promo is the shortest one of the bunch, at slightly less than twenty minutes and logically the best place to start with if you haven't heard the project yet. Strongly inspired by Sumerian mythology, the stuff is dark and trippy, though not to the extent the CD's and second promo get with their longer tracks. The comparable simplicity works well for me and I find this the easiest listen of the lot, though some of the vocal effects are very annoying. Recommended for listeners of dungeon synth, ritual/occult stuff and fans of silly voices.

Into The Sunless Meridian - XXIX A.S. demo 1994

Into the Sunless Meridian - XXIX A.S. demo #1 1994
1) Meditations in a Cold and Dimly Lit Room
2) Of the Dark
3) In a Haze of Drifting Obscurity
4) Sleeping in Eternal Darkness
5) Ezeerb Nrehtron
6) The Luciferian Twilight
7) Reversed Lust Summoning
8) Celebration of Victory
9) Lunar Slumber - Part I - Tantric Meditations in the Fleeting Night
10) Lunar Slumber - Part II - Through the Looking Glass

Mediafire / Depositfiles

Today's post is the seldom seen 1st demo of Into the Sunless Meridian. Vaalkoth had lost his own copy somewhere but luckily brother Fenrirsson had and ripped it, so thanks to him for this! Scans of the cover and lyrics sheet are also included.

If you listened to the second demo, you know what to expect as this much in the same vein, though with a bit more straight black metal content. The old school influences are present like always but slightly more subdued. The intro track was used also on the self titled album, the rest of the content I think hasn't been elsewhere. Fenrirsson's rip is very good quality and the demo itself has a decent sound so there should be no problems in that direction. Recommended for people into the other ITSM material, fans of atmospheric 90s black metal sound and collectors of bm demos. Vaalkoth should be posting this also on his personal blog, go look there for the rest of his material!

Shadowcaster - Psychelectronic Experience (1999)

Shadowcaster - Psychelectronic Experience CD 1999
1) Entrance Into The Shaman Consciousness (Phase I, II, III)
2) Riding The Zenith (Phase I, II)
3) Journey Across The Vast Psychedelic Landscape To The Darkness Beyond (Hallucinations With No Color)

Mediafire / Depositfiles

I have returned from Hammer Open Air alive, so here's the second Shadowcaster album I promised to post. For more information on the project see this earlier post. This too was sent by Mikael himself, so thank you again!

As you may see above, only three tracks this time but these are all very long, making the total playtime over an hour. First two are both over 15 minutes and the last one is an over half an hour juggernaut! Slightly surprising, this album is actually a little easier listen - at least in my opinion - as there isn't as much experimentation just for the sake of experimentation. It might be somewhat in my head but it sounds more consistent. There are still most elements from the previous album present, though the vocals tend to be more in the whispered/spoken vein rather than the black metallish rasp. The synths and effects lean to more spacey sounds, though parts are still very dungeon synth. A part in the second track reminded me of the old Doctor Who series' music. Which is pretty awesome. If you dared to check out the first album you'll want to hear this as well.

Shadowcaster - Abandonment (1996)

Shadowcaster (us) - Abandonment CD 1996
1) Wisdom Is My Misery (Melancholia's Caress)
2) Abandonment
3) In the Darkest Reaches of a Distant Cavern at the Very Depths of a Great and Silent Lake
4) We Are the Elite... (Into an Abstract View I Sail)
5) Ereshkigal's Gift (the Descent of Inanna, the Ascension), Pt. 2
6) The Shadowcaster
7) Prolonged Aftermath, Then Solitude
8) My Summoning of the Darkness Princess [Embrace Me]
9) I Am Truly Free: The Blackness Within

Mediafire / Depositfiles

More non-metal follows, but despair not - I promise next entry will be metal. Probably black. Back to this post, here is another donation from brother Vaalkoth, the debut album of his ambient/synth solo project Shadowcaster which also released two demo tapes in 1994 and had some pretty bitchin' flyers if I remember correctly. Thanks mate! Right, released by the late infamous Greek label Unisound Records as a digipack, Shadowcaster kind of continued where fellow Americans Equimanthorn left off with their "Nindinugga Nimshimshargal Enlillara" album in 1994. I had no cover scans but found decent images of the front and back of the digipak, these are included in the download. And before you complain about the track titles differing from the album, these are as Vaalkoth sent them and I'd expect him to know how they are supposed to be written.

Less ritualistic and conceptually focused than Equimanthorn were, Shadowcaster combines darkwave, ambient and even some dungeon synthesque parts with (mostly) raspy black metal vocals, supported by some (very little) clean singing, whispers and such. I'm under the impression at least some of the material is improvised, not to Abruptum degree but there are still occasional jarring changes and unexpected turns of events. At its best the album is hauntingly atmospheric, at worst it makes you drum the table impatiently and wish the track would change. With a duration of 70+ minutes it does overstay its welcome a bit, but there is certain crude charm to this, similar to much dungeon synth work. I have to say I'm not too fond of the "lasers firing" sounds on the 25+min mammoth "Ereshkigal's Gift" - which otherwise works surprisingly well for its lenght. Try it if you're into bands and genres name dropped on the post so far, if you're not into them I guess you'll wait for the next post.

Into The Sunless Meridian - Sex Magick demo 1995

Into The Sunless Meridian - Sex Magick demo #2 1995
1) ...And Be Done With Yesterday...
2) Unfurl Your Leaves
3) Weightlessly Floating Down A Spaceless Spiral Staircase In A Necromantical Astral Body
4) Ritual Cunnilingus
5) Necrosexual Meditation With A Pale Lust Goddess
6) Sinking
7) Grim Vendetta
8) Necrophiliac (Slayer Cover)
9) Soaring Through The Appalachian Valleys And Up Into The Galaxy
10) Above And Beyond What You Could Ever Comprehend (Alien Intercourse And Climax)

Mediafire / Depositfiles (with cover scans)

I am still feeling quite dead after Nummirock so I'll make this brief. Here's another contribution sent by brother Vaalkoth aka Mikael and this is the 2nd demo from his solo project Into The Sunless Meridian. As the tracklisting might reveal to the observant reader, the concept of this demo is interesting and less common than say, vampirism or war. Unfortunately he doesn't have a scanner so I don't have a proper scan of the covers, the Metal Archives image has to do unless someone has a better scan to send.

UPDATE: Got the cover scans from Mikael's new blog. Downloads now include them.

The music on the demo is atmospheric black metal with some old school touches ranging from old heavy metal to death and thrash with ambient interludes thrown in. The demo is of quite epic lenght, clocking over 55 minutes which is a bit much. The sound is of quite typical early 90's demo quality, I've certainly heard worse and so have you if you've read this blog for any longer. I'd recommend you to check this out, especially if you liked the NCD material.

Night Conquers Day - Last Rehearsal 1999

Night Conquers Day - Last Rehearsal October 17th 1999
1) The Gnostic Interpretations (no vocals)
2) Demiurge (no vocals)
3) Rebellion Is The Art Of Survival
4) Martyrdom Delusions (no vocals)

Mediafire / Deposit

And here's another NCD rehearsal contributed by brother Vaalkoth, many thanks to him again! For further background banter, see the previous post! I'm not going to repeat myself here (much at least) so let's just say another rip from him and no real covers, I just made that up.

Like you might have noticed from the title, this was the last NCD rehearsal, unfortunately as I quite enjoy it. Someone might have spotted the instrumental tag at the bottom of the post, it is there because three out of these four songs have no vocals, I'm guessing it is due the lyrics not have been finished for them. They're also marked on the tracklisting and are the unreleased ones. The sound is a little more muddled and obscure here yet at the same time comes of sounding better balanced than on the previous rehearsal tape I posted. It is listenable in my opinion, better than average or something like that. I grow weary of typing, recommended if you liked the other NCD material and you could give it a shot even if you didn't.

Night Conquers Day - Lammas Eve Rehearsal 1997

Night Conquers Day - July 31st Lammas Eve Rehearsal 1997
1) The First Snowfall
2) Banished From My Eyes
3) Untitled [Weird Guitar Noises]

Depositfiles / Mediafire

Here's a contribution sent by Vaalkoth aka Mikael from US black metal band (and a host of others) Night Conquers Day which you might remember from here. Not long ago he sent me a bunch of links to certain material from his various projects and some of them have been shared elsewhere so I don't think I'm going to repeat those but I think this and a few others haven't been uploaded by our comrades in arms yet. These are his rips, I've just packed the stuff up and uploaded elsewhere, all credit and big thanks to Vaalkoth! Has no real official cover, I just wanted to whip up a quick placeholder.

This one has a very good rehearsal sound and contains two tracks - the third one is just really guitar effects/noise as the guys goof around - which are very lenghty and have been both recorded for the NCD debut album "The First Snowfall" released in 1998. Obviously the rehearsal versions sound rougher than the album material, but this one is quite easy on the ears. NCD material is semi-symphonic sort of black metal with influences of the elders thrown in the mix, so the end result is definitely more metal than keyboard acrobatics and sounds both epic and atmospheric. Be sure to check out the full-lenght albums as well!

Night Conquers Day - Advance Tape 1997

Night Conquers Day - Advance studio track 1997
1) Banished From My Eyes

Mediafire / Depositfiles

Today's item is a single track filler-sort of item from tape trading days, a track that would appear on the debut album "The First Snowfall" of the US black metallers Night Conquers Day. I don't know if this is a final version of the song, or if it was even re-recorded for the album as the lenght appears different and I don't have the album myself to make a comparison. Mikael who was the more-or-less mainman of the band was known as an active tape trader as well as from other projects like Into The Sunless Meridian, Shadowcaster and Tearstained. I never wrote with the man myself but I'm sure several of my contacts probably traded with him. I believe this track (and probably others) was just dubbed to some of his contacts, instead of being an official promo or advance of any sort. So, obviously no covers.

So what is it like? It's quite symphonic sort of black metal but not really carbon copy of anything that would spring into my mind right now. However, it has a feel of familiarity if you've listened to the genre and the 90's offerings. The tape was a little worn which may be heard on places but the sound itself is more than sufficient to my tastes and I find this song quite enjoyable. I wonder why didn't I familiarize myself more with the man's projects back then. Anyways, check this out and the two albums and demo as well!