Svantevith - The Return of the Ancient Slav promo '96

Svantevith - The Return of the Ancient Slav promo 1996
1) Intro
2) Te Svantevith Laudeamus
3) Te Svantevith... /Reprise/
4) 966
5) Smutek i rozpacz
6) Outro

Sendspace / Sampo

...or "Thr Return of the Ancient Slav" as our Slavonic heroes manage to misspell the title in not one but two places. That aside, I know there were rips of this floating in the bleak cybervoid before but at least the one I had saved was not of very stellar master elite quality so when I came across my copy of the tape I decided to rip it and post the result as it turned out ok. "It" being the sole promo tape of the Polish project Svantevith featuring Lord Smrtan of Nirnaeth fame, also responsible for keyboards, programming and similar pursuits in Themgoroth and Eblis. Cover scans included.

Yes, this is a synth project like you probably guessed, and in the particular vein Poles were fond of: bombastic Slavonic pagan ambient with touches of both neoclassical and pagan black metal. Latter mainly represented by the surprisingly savage raw vocals and scarcely deployed guitar. There are certainly some elements of dungeon synth present as well but I think this is quite differently oriented. Adding the tag still as the music may appeal to fans of that category. Side A could be considered the main or title part and consists of a lengthy intro, ten minute plus epos Te Svantevith Laudeamus and a short instrumental reprise piece. Side B opens with the aggressive 966 which is the most metal song of the bunch with constant fervent vocals, martial percussion, abundant background shrieks and occasional electric guitar support. This is a long track, almost seven minutes, but has a lot going on. Smutek i rozpacz which follows has music credited to Azhubham Haani (well, spelled Aazhubham... here). The band? Is this a cover? It's a bleak affair led by the shriekier voice, guitar strumming and quite mellow synth. I don't recognize this as any of the A.H. songs right now, let's leave that to experts. A lonely piano opens the almost five minute outro track that soon adds more elements in and developes epic character. Interesting thing, not quite metal nor purely ambient either. Reminds me a bit of the December's Fire album, though I seem to like this more. Could be due my strong preference of D.F. demos over the full length. I recommend you take a listen if you like dramatic synth stuff and don't mind a Slavonic pagan metal flair to it.

Endoki Forest - Demo '95 + Rehearsal '96

Endoki Forest - An Evil of Nordic Frost demo 1995
1) I
2) II
3) III
4) IV
5) V
6) VI
7) VI
Rehearsal for Upcoming Album '96
1) Advance I
2) Advance II

Mediafire / Depositfiles

More non metal, this is a contribution I actually received quite long ago but it has been a bit troublesome, delaying its time to appear on the altar. This is Endoki Forest from the United States and the (only) demo from 1995 plus a bonus of two rehearsal/advance tracks that were planned to appear on a full length album scheduled for 1996. As far as I know, it was not completed after all. Endoki Forest remains active to this day, or possibly more accurately re-activated a few years ago releasing a compilation also named "An Evil of Nordic Frost" in digital format (only, I think) which was not this demo redone but rather a compilation of material from different years and more recently a full length album "Black Sorcerers Fortress" on Darker Than Black. Unfortunately I can't check the details on the compilation anymore since it appears Bandcamp has either purged Faunus Amadeus Loki out or he has chosen to diminish his online presence. Whatever the case, his former email is not working either so I could not get hold of him to check facts. I could've probably pestered DTB with it but decided against that and just went with what I got.

Why would Bandcamp give master Loki the boot you wonder? Well, he was and is somewhat notorious for his NS associated projects like Berzerker and label of old Black Sorcerers which released tapes around mid-90s... I should actually have a flyer or maybe two somewhere but I didn't find them on my admittedly hasty and careless search. I probably find them the next time I look for something else. DTB has released also a CD from his other, more recent project Herrenvolk which I believe is slightly better known and from what I've heard more in the martial industrial/ambient vein while Endoki Forest falls, in my humble opinion, into the dungeon synth category on the old material and more in dark ambient vein on the new album.

Cover image from Discogs entry!

So much text and quite little on this actual item so far! Right, to the issues I mentioned right in the beginning: first off, no cover or tracklisting. Apparently my contributor had gotten this tape dubbed by F.A.L. and instead of a cover he had sent the pic seen cropped way up there decorating the post and slightly reduced down below in its whole while Discogs entry gives a different sort of cover which you may see above this paragraph but fails to deliver a tracklisting either. So I went with good old Roman numerals, as usual, and divided the rip into what I believe to be seven tracks. Most have easy to spot breaks between them but the last one was a little tricky. Secondly, the rip was unfortunately not very good, being done slightly too loud and then converted to low bitrate as coup de grâce. This leads to a major thing to point out in the download; there are two folders within, one labeled "Scott" and one "Velkaarn" which contain two versions of the demo. Mine is practically unedited, just chopped up into tracks and slightly adjusted the volume while "Scott" is more heavily reworked, courtesy of master Scott, formerly known from December Wolves, later Serpent Eclipse and nowadays an audio editor and a fine sportsman. Thanks for taking time to fiddle with this and the other thing! Scott's version... well, I'll just quote him: "I cleaned up some of the noise where it was distracting from the music, balanced the L/R channels, restored some of the low frequencies, and most importantly I added back some of the dynamics so that the synth has room to breathe." So yes, it has notably less of the brickwall effect of a too loud rip, less hiss and generally sounds more "airy" while retaining the necesssary desolation. Unfortunately the tradeoff is the usual issue with noise reduction causing certain "fraying" of the sound especially on the high end, most audible on the storm sound effects on track... was it 4? You'll notice. But it can't be helped, it's the best we could manage with the material for now.

The full picture scaled down, original scan is huge.

To the music itself, half an hour of somewhat cold and grim dungeon synth with that slightly crude sound that fits the music perfectly. It's not fully instrumental, II features some appropriately sinister hisses, whispers and shrieks that actually fit very well so for once I'm not complaining. V has more vocals, this time odd echoing, almost moany "singing" that again sounds surprisingly suitable before metamorphosing to the form familiar from second part. Among top 3 dungeon synth vocals! Aside from that there's the storm and rain samples and if you listen to the unpurified version you can think of the hiss as additional sound effect? The moods the tracks paint vary from witnessing clandestine rituals under the cold full moon to carefully navigating old dungeonscapes of stone, cobwebs and dust to picnic in the Carpathians with the Lamentation crew. Think whatever you will of master Loki's other works, politics, belief systems, orientation and favourite foods, I don't care, this is a good demo and I'd really like to find an original copy of it! Or a good dub would do. I forgot to talk about the bonus tracks! Well, they're similar to the demo material. Recommended for all into old school dungeon synth sounds.

The Shadow Dance - Stormy Visions demo '95

The Shadow Dance - Stormy Visions demo I 1995
1) Temple
2) Sea-Horse
3) Hologram Song

Sendspace / Yandex

Ok, time to do something non-metal for change and it's an accidental discovery, sort of, found among the tapes I borrowed from brother Grev some months ago. This is The Shadow Dance from Finland, Helsinki to be more precise. Check out their old school late 90s/early 00s webpage! No, really, you have to see it! Takes one back, that does. And yes children, back in the day pretty much all webpages looked like that. Or worse. Now that's been taken care off let's return to music. This is their first demo recorded in the fall '95. No cover I'm afraid, their site didn't have an image either. But it did have the band photo seen above which I decided to use to decorate the post. That's about as goth as you can get!

Three songs in roughly thirteen minutes, the first one "Temple" was also featured on a few compilations and a 1998 MCD of the same title. It's a slow building, moody and atmospheric piece with slightly ethereal quality and a bit more intense middle part. Main voice is clearly amateurish female singer who comes across borderline awkward but pleasant enough to swing the performance more to "innocent" side rather than "annoying" - that really sounds (reads, you old fool) vague, doesn't it? Second song is more upbeat, almost busy even. It almost brings some new wave song I've long forgotten to mind, almost but not quite! The final song, shortest of the lot, resembles the first one more but generally sticks to the same vein. Maybe a bit catchier, in the end. Reminds me a little of the Finnish Neverwood, less trippy and polished though. But simple is good sometimes and I actually enjoy this on occasion. Check it out, but bear in mind it is neither dark nor grim. Next one will be. Unless I decide to do another re-run, which I actually thought would've been a hilarious post after a hiatus but then wimped out.

Nattvindens Gråt - Där svanar flyger MLP '95

Nattvindens Gråt - Där svanar flyger cassette mini-album 1995
1) En avlägsen stjärna
2) I tysthetens kalla rike
3) Fjälldalen
4) Där svanar flyger
5) 66,5° N

Depositfiles / Mediafire

The Fennoscandian tour returns to Finland and here's a post somewhat similar to other recent ones in spirit; it's an item I originally didn't think I'd post as rips exist online already, but having ripped it for my own use in early '15 I decided to upload it here as well. In the end Nattvindens Gråt isn't as well known as I thought and especially not their earlier style of... of... uh, let's call it atmospheric Nordic metal? Our good old fallback term "dark metal" fails today as this isn't really that dark. Not at least in my opinion... then again some of the things people do call dark metal aren't so dark at all. Oh leave it already and move on! We could vote on it? No, I'm not setting up a poll for that. Cover scans included and they ended up a bit larger than I meant, sorry!

Right, as you see from the title line there this is a (a horrible term follows brace yourselves) 'cassette mini-album', which is something you don't really encounter that often. I guess it's a bit long to be called an EP and too short for a full album, plus it was never intended to be one. Sound is much, much more refined than on the promo track I posted earlier. Waaaay earlier. Wow, that's almost eight years ago! Then again this was recorded in the well-known Astia Studio and features a full line-up instead of a solitary Teemu like on that promo. Including a certain Tuomas on keyboards. Other familiar names to pop up are Nattfursth of Sorhin who helped with the lyrics (they're in Swedish if you did not notice) and the logo artist whom we know by a different name herein the Coven.

The recording runs for roughly 31 minutes and is divided into four longer "proper" tracks and one slightly shorter instrumental that ends it. The longest of the bunch is the already familiar En avlägsen stjärna (remember, small letters apart from the first for Swedish titles!) which kicks the album off and shares the A-side with I tysthetens kalla rike, a somewhat similar song moodwise. Both are mostly in slower midtempo, with slight variations, feature a plenty of synth (well everything does) and are led by Teemu's croaky main vocals. They have a certain epic feel to them. B-side starter Fjälldalen is slightly different as it feels somewhat more aggressive and also the voice is different here, sounds a bit more forced, barky and violent even. Many traditional heavy metal riffs. I think it's been equally audible all the way through, but here I paid extra attention to the very clearly distinguishable bass. Title track is slower again and more melancholic and features an extremely unprofessional male angel choir which I somehow don't find extremely disruptive today?! I recall cringing and fearing I grind away all the precious enamel in most earlier listens but now it's sort of endearing. I must be growing soft. If we don't count the hit-and-miss nature of the clean vocals I think this might be my second favourite from the songs here. The final song is a synth instrumental and very nice. Winter synth. Ok, so if you like melodic, moody, not-exactly-dark-but-almost... dim? wan? obtuse? metal with that certain northern feeling this might be for you. And listening to the advance tape for the first album now directly after this I must say the music does not change that much between them, main thing must be the vocals which on the album are... let's leave that for another time, I was so close to end this write up, dammit! And I do end here, just try and stop me!

Blazing Eternity - Over sorte heder demo '96

Blazing Eternity - Over sorte heder demo I 1996
1) Over sorte heder
2) Towards the Thorns of Melancholy
3) Da håbet blev borte for altid...
4) Enthralled by Sorrow
5) The Romantic Forest Is Darker Than Sadness

Sampo / Zippyshare

Sometimes it really takes me ridiculously long to do things. Like today's item; I ripped the tape this was on five years ago. I wasn't actually going to post it but somehow the previous entry inspired me so here we are. It's been a while since our last visit to Denmark so about time we return to those shores with Blazing Eternity's first demo. Called black metal by some careless individuals this is probably as close as they got to that, doing a few years later a full-Katatonia wimp out. Or so I've been told, I actually never heard the second album but the development certainly seemed to lead to that path. Anyways, on this debut they play dark metal with harsh main vocals (primary reason people labeled this black metal I suppose), plenty of atmospheric breaks and generally quite mellow mood.

The title track is actually the most aggressive of the songs and gives a bit misleading idea of the release. Personally, I think it's the best of the bunch as well. It does have a slow part in the middle too so perhaps not as misleading as I implied. Interestingly, the other song with Danish lyrics, the short middle track When Hope Was Gone Forever is quite aggressive too while the English tracks tend towards slower, even doomy tempos and generally more... oh hell, look at the damned titles! Melancholy thorns, enthrally sorrow, romantic forest sadness!!! Need I really elaborate? I'm for some reason starting to get really annoyed, this demo has an odd habit of being "oh nice, why don't I listen to this more often" on every other listen and "isn't this girly crap going to ever end" on those less favourable moods. I don't really like the clean vocals, he sounds more like a kid trying his hardest which I suppose will appeal to some folks with strong parental instincts but it's not at all having the effect I'm sure he was striving for. Curiously, years ago I liked this demo better than their second one.

Right, enough of content, I'll just mention this is made from a dub and has generally decent quality but it really could be better. And there are no scans, unfortunately, just a cover image I think I picked up from Discogs. It's a pretty nice cover. That font though. This is all for now, if you like romantic sort of dark metal by cute *I don't know if they're really cute, they do wear corpsepaint on the pic!* young Danes pick this up. If you want manly, harsh war black metal stay at least 10' (~3 meters) away from this!

Jääportit - Halki lumisen metsän demo '98

Jääportit - Halki lumisen metsän demo I 1998
1) Kulkue varjojen
2) Vaellus porteille Tuonelan
3) Läpi lumimyrskyn
4) Yömustaa
5) Jään kirous
6) Sade lumen mustan
7) Hänen jäätävä katseensa

Sendspace / Sampo

Alright, let us for change fulfill a request practically immediately, without (much) extra tarrying. Here are some more ambient sounds for you, the debut demo CD-R of Finnish Jääportit who are at least moderately well-known ...I think? It was a request by comrade pagan made a few days ago and as expected, our reliable frater Grev sent me a link to a rip he had burned on a disc before I could even ask him about it! Thank you for you vigilance and generosity. There was a cover image as well, but no full scans which as always are welcome so get in touch if you can provide one.

The rip has a low bitrate (CBR 128) but with this sort of music it's not a big issue. Later Jääportit material sees the sound expanded to various dimensions while this debut is pretty much in the dungeon synth camp though of course with a wintry flair. It still feels more appropriate for the DS label than the tape album that followed in 1999. Suitably down-to-tomb yet grandiose synth sounds, plenty of variation without going overboard, atmospheres ranging from very dark and menacing to almost tribal sleigh ride-esque (more somber than the xmas piece you probably now think of!) and generally that wandering in nocturnal winter forest-feeling. Just add a black robe and some corpse paint. Warm underwear is recommended too. I really really enjoy this but am horribly distracted right now so I can't really come up with more witty banter. Go on and download it already!

Drunemeton - Recital to the Shinning Moon demo '96

Drunemeton - Recital to the Shinning Moon demo '96
1) The Wolves of Winter: Part 1: Chorus During Early Nigth
2) The Wolves of Winter: Part 2: Leaving the Forest
3) The Wolves of Winter: Part 3: The Hurting
4) The Wolves of Winter: Part 4: The Last Breath
5) The Dancing Fost
6) The Hand's Cuting
7) Triumph of the Ice

Zippyshare / Yandex

Today I wanted to do an item that has been bothering me for almost twenty years but finally some weeks ago the matter was lain to rest, thanks to the contribution by comrade Dead Christmas! The bothersome item in question was this '96 demo by "Polish" (so I was told back in the tape trading days) synth project Drunemeton of which I had a very questionable dub. Fortunately DC had acquired the demo during his quest for Nazgul Productions items and judging from the information on the covers I believe this too was a French artist after all. The rip also revealed how hopelessly lacking my dub was. Cover scan is enclosed and I have uploaded a very slightly edited version of the rip; I increased the volume just a notch and cut away a bit of noise after the first song that was not part of the demo.

At roughly 42½ minutes this easily reaches album length and is divided into two halves so to say, first twenty minutes consisting of the epic The Wolves of Winter parts 1-4. Instrumental, somewhat neoclassical sounding dungeon synth mixing (I'm taking this from the covers directly) Akai, Oberheim and Roland synthesizers with grand piano and some flutes. I've cut each part into individual tracks as the tracklisting gives them separate running times and they divided easily enough. The second half is made of three tracks with slightly more individual character to each of them. The Dancing Fost (I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be ...Frost but I didn't go and correct the titles, like I always say it is Necromansy and that's it!) starts almost harshly and proceeds to change to more introspective moods before slowly picking momentum again, only for it to drop while approaching the end. Synthesizer sounds rather than piano dominate The Hand's Cuting (again, should be ...Cutting but no correcsies!) giving it an aura of menace that changes to desolation as the instrumentation gets scarcer and more minimalistic, developing to a trippy dark ambient end. Last song Triumph of the Ice is the longest of the lot and reprises some of the moods from the first parts while featuring a very distinct classical guitar part in the middle before a long build up to a slow but triumphant ending with percussive elements and orchestra hits. Wintry, melancholic and rather nostalgic stuff, decent enough sound though not by any means polished. Reminds me at times of Emglev (again!) and in places even Lamentation. Few places. And just a little. But much more Emg than Lam. Recommended for fans of French synth projects, dungeon explorers and Nazgul Productions enthusiasts.

Blutkrieg - Resurgence of Atavism demo '00

Blutkrieg - Resurgence of Atavism demo '00
1) Resurgent Atavism
- a) Journey into Pagan Battlefields
- b) Battle of the Blutkrieg
- c) Eternal Victory / Journey Home
- d) Celebration Across the Planes of Midgard 
2) The Crossing of Bifrost to the Halls of Asgard
3) March of the Blutkrieg

Mediafire / RGhost

Here's some non-metal material again and a post I was supposed to do already long ago but it was left in a sorting-out limbo for some... let's say months. Years are made of months after all. Here's Blutkrieg who hail from the US of A and the 2000 demo which was sent to me by a certain contributor burned on a disc. Thanks, you know who you are! It seems like they re-released the demo material, re-titled and split differently unto tracks on a split with Acirema whom you might remember? I'm not sure if anything else was done to it, remastering or anything like that, probably not. The crappy cover image was taken from Discogs who also try to pass this as another project with Rubeus XIII while it's actually by a fellow called Vautrin.

I was debating with myself if I should adjust the tracklisting a bit but decided against meddling with it. The split has first track consist of three parts, followed by three titles more. The above tracklisting implies it has four parts but the fourth part is actually (as far as I can tell) in the beginning of the second track The Crossing of Bifrost... - it's highly similar to it, moreso than the preceeding fifteen minutes. There's a clear break which makes me think it could be two different tracks that just sound kinda similar. Maybe the artist thought same and did exactly what I'm contemplating above for the "second edition" of it?

I've mentioned Acirema and all sorts of other stuff but not really discussed what this sounds like! Well, not at all like A. This is dungeon synth, with um, Odalistic themes? It's not really apparent when you listen to the music though, there are some vocals on the first track but they're quite hard to make out as they get buried in the billowing clouds of synths. Despite having parts that have to do with battle, victory and such the first track is not very dynamic, it's as if we were distant from the battlefield so the din of warfare really does not reach us. I suppose the narrations would describe the events if one could make out what is said. Second track is different in mood and very active with bouncy percussion and general sense of motion. Last one, March of the Blutkrieg, brings again heavy associations to old 80's CRPGs to my mind, and it's not really much like a march so the re-title to Hall of Valhalla on the split feels very justified. Overall the sound is good enough, suitably lo-fi and archaic feeling, no samples or silly effects added. Note that a healthy dose of tape hiss is included. Not great art or neoclassic masterpiece but I find it enjoyable. Perhaps you should give it a go too?

Forgotten Kadath - The Lost Book demo '95

Forgotten Kadath - The Lost Book demo 1995
1) Journey in the Eastern Lands (Intro)
2) The Book
3) Gregorius Philus
4) Via Giugoti
5) Yuggoth
6) Sanitarium (Outro)

Mediafire / Sendspace

Today we're having some Italian doom, courtesy of our comrade Profoundemonium again. Last time he contributed me the Dream Upon Tombs demo and this continues in the tradition of atmospheric and obscure stuff. Thanks for the rip!

As you may see from the cover art from above as well as the band name and song titles this is material inspired by master HPL and thus something young Velkaarn would've been very thrilled of. Well, I still enjoy most things Lovecraftian but not to the same fanboyish fervor anymore. Though I admit I got a strong urge to play Arkham Horror. And to listen to Thergothon which I'm going to put on right after this.

Could you please concentrate on this demo while it's still on thank you? Ok, not a very long one, slightly under fifteen minutes. We've an intro, outro and an interlude (Via Giugioti) each with roughly a minute to their name and three "proper" songs of which Gregorious Philus is an instrumental. Sound is pretty good, kind of obscure and with the guitar a little more distant than usual, with a very clear bass. It's not the muddled sort of obscure, don't get me wrong, more like perceived-through-a-veil-of-mist sort of obnuliated. And I just love the keyboards that come in on the second song The Book, just delightful and now I want to listen to Novalis instead of Thergothon. The effected vocal makes me think of some older Aarni material, or perhaps Umbra Nihil? I should probably check, but I don't really want to do that now. The instrumental G.P.  continues in similar vein and is a bit shorter, yet features some very catchy tunes that however have some sort of strange quality to them. The interlude is somewhat ominous and the last proper track Yuggoth is more guitar driven than The Book was. The vocals have less effect to them and seem a bit more aggressive and menacing instead of the otherworldliness earlier presented. General mood of the song is also more, well, driven and focused than before. The outro is desolate flutes, not quite crazy enough to convoke Azathoth but a nice way to end the tape.

I enjoyed this quite a bit and would really like to hear what little more there is to be found, namely the split/collaboration tape with their black metal side project Atropos (there's a rip of this around so should not be a big challenge to find) and "The Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath" released in '95 when they were known as Kadath and played death metal though that probably isn't of similar style or quality. Recommended if you're into atmospheric (death) doom, a Lovecraft-connoisseur, fan of old Italian underground metal or generally very curious.

Conjured to Baphometh Bandcamp

Conjured to Baphometh - The Spawn of the Lilioth demo I 1995
1) Intro
2) Flowing Through Crystal Lakes and Mountains
3) Dance du Diablo
4) Thus Spoke Lilith
5) The New Age

Bandcamp page

Conjured to Baphometh - ...Wonder? demo II 1996
1) Disturbed Fulfillment
2) Bitumen Journey
3) Within Caverns
4) Behind
5) Flowing Through Crystal Lakes and Mountains (Epic Remix)
6) Evolution - Progress
7) Tribes
8) Behold! (Collision)
9) Chromatic Postludium

Bandcamp page

Sorry the long pause but uncle Velkaarn has been absent in spirit if not in body. Anyways, this post is not of the usual download links and inane babbling sort, though the latter is probably included. Rather, consider it a public service announcement.

Master Lord Azazel Djinn aka L.A.D. which sounds too much like a rapper so maybe Lord A.D. would be better stay on topic old fool has set up a bandcamp page with both Conjured to Baphometh releases, links found above. Some of you lot have already heard half of the demo I as it was mistakenly posted as the second Malitiae tape in the big mix up scandal of December '16, never forget. Now available in full five song glory and more balanced volume, we discover the last two songs continue in similar vein to the first half and indeed fit in the dungeon synth niche.

The second recording, which I had not heard before, features more songs and is... different. Let's keep it at that, a little suspense should do you good and I need to listen to it again in order to make sense. As if I'd let that stop me from writing before, but for now I'm just asking you to check them out and support L.A.Djinn, as well as offer my thanks for making the stuff available!

Malitiae - My Inner Blasphemy promo '96

Malitiae - My Inner Blasphemy promo 1996
1) Goathead (Intro)
2) Förintelsens tron
3) Baphometh

links deleted as it wasn't correct item!

More contributions follow, this is Malitiae from Sweden, loved by a few, dreaded by a couple more and unknown to vast majority. Not devotees of the Coven though! This is the second tape, of which Lord Azazel Djinn himself commented: "About the other tapes, the second one was in many ways worse (though completely different), whereas the two following ones were standard black metal." Thanks for the chance to hear it go to my collaborateur, the man who originally ripped and scanned this, monsieur Ronan of Psychopathological zine and my lovely assistant not doing a magic show my collaboratrice, the good sister Borderline who forwarded the rip to me and acquired permission to feature it here. Merci beaucoup! Hvala vam puno!

Ok, enough banter, let's move to business: three songs, first being an intro and two "regular" ones, total a bit under ten minutes. Good sound but unfortunately Ronan has ripped it at slightly too loud volume so it sounds a bit more abrasive and broken than it should. This is fully intrumental and resembles most fellow Swedes Landscape and actually a bit Emglev too, now that I listen to the second song while typing this. This might pass as metal, ambient/black metal of some sort perhaps, if one is feeling generous, with the percussion and all. Third track not so much, it's basically keyboards on the background and piano that is beaten played like percussion on the forefront. At the end of the day I can't agree with the artist's assessment of this being worse of the two early demos. And now I'm really curious to hear how he progressed on the stardard black metal demos III & IV! Not obviously for everyone but much easier to recommend than the first effort.

UPDATE: Lord Azazel Djinn sent me his rip of this promo and it's not the one I got from Borderline who got it from Ronan!!! Almost same running time but different material! It has vocals and sounds more like a continuation of "Azazel" demo, I'll probably upload it here as soon as I get some sort of clearence what the hell the item Ronan had ripped is then, as he had provided scans I wonder if he somehow managed to do wrong side of the tape or what ever else may have occurred. Damn it! Now I wonder if it could be a Conjured to Baphometh recording, also by L.A.D. and in that vein.

UPDATE II: Yup, it's partial Conjured to Baphometh demo, not "My Inner Blasphemy" and links are removed. I will make a repost with Lord A.D.'s sending, stay tuned! And eventually CtB demo too.

Vacuum - Digest of Dreams demo '94

Vacuum [nor] - Digest of Dreams demo 1994
1) Cosmos
2) Deep in the Sea of Grief
3) Epitomized

Depositfiles / Yandex

Let's do another Norwegian item and in somewhat similar vein to our previous offering. Here, courtesy of the detective work performed by brother Emptiness Cycle, is finally the long-sought 1994 demo "Digest of Dreams" by Vacuum which you may remember from the Sverd Storm II compilation I posted in 2011. I've been after the damned thing for 20 years but not apparently hard enough, considering how easily EC acquired it! Well, not sure if easily but rather quickly anyways. Thanks again for doing the legwork! He had contacted a former member of the band who provided a master rip of the demo (and some other stuff, we return to them at later date) for our nefarious purposes. No cover scans unfortunately but at least the music is at last available.

Three tracks, the second one being already familiar from the compilation tape and all are full "proper" songs. General feeling is a bit more on the trippy and slightly experimental side rather than desolate doom and gloom of many peers worldwide at the time. Sound is good, I'd say and mostly very clear. There is a temporary quality shift on the second song which might be a little disconcerting to more tender listeners, but nothing really drastic. Main voice is the gruff yell familiar from the sampler presentation, much more melodious and singsongy than usual takes one tends to encounter. There are some passages which remind me of what Katatonia was shifting to at the time. Music, not the vocals, mind you. A few slightly silly bits too, like the synth hit around two minutes into the last song, perfect for striking a pose. EDIT: How did I manage to not mention the abrupt ending? Well, I did. So, the last track ends very, very abruptly which brother EC had also noticed and apparently "he's adamant that its how its meant to be" (the contributor that is) so it's an odd artistic choice then. Overall I can't say I'd be dissappointed after my excessive wait, have a listen if Norwegian non-black metal items of the 90's interest you at all!

Mord Umysłu - Promo '98

Mord Umysłu - Promo tape 1998
1) I
2) II

Rusfolder / Sendspace

Ok, more slightly unusual stuff and again we are in Poland. Looks like a pattern has emerged, I should probably break it as soon as possible before it binds me. But let's not discuss that, let's rather talk about this sending I got already months ago, thanks to the sender, but hesitated to post due lack of information. This is an obscure 1998 recording by Mord Umysłu which roughly translates as murder of mind, or maybe mental murder? Something along those lines anyways. It was a project, most likely an one-shot, by Aro who is best known from Perunwit though he did have a host of other projects as well. Many of them with very limited discography when compared to Perunwit I should mention. There's not really much info about this two song tape on the internets, just passing mentions of the band on Metal Archives and this entry, in Polish, on a blog written by Zuchu666 who used to contribute on the venerated Raf666underground blog. RIP, it strongly seems.

Where was I? Yeah, that entry, it had a download link too but that's expired so I've been unable to compare. It seems extremely unlikely these would not be same recording though different rips certainly. The recording itself consists of two untitled (probably, no-one at least seems to know the titles!) tracks and runs for a bit over ten minutes. Music is... pretty hard to describe with a simple neat term, let's try dark ambient metal, how's that? Way more ambient than metal, mind you. While Perunwit is very folky stuff this isn't that sort of thing at all. The sound is good, quite mellow and floaty, better than on older Perunwit tapes so it might be a studio recording. Most likely just a result of better equipment and experience. Vocals are in Polish and gravelly sort of half-singing half-snarling with slight variation thrown in. Keys and effects are omnipresent and it has a slightly dreamlike quality to it, whatever-wave touches. To toss a very misleading comparison, let's say My Angel-era Arcturus meets late-90s Christ Agony. No, it's not really like that, I had a better one in mind but it got away. Still, an interesting tape, I should ask Zuchu to reupload that other rip so I could compare quality. Oh yeah, no cover as this probably didn't have one, Z speculated it was never "properly" released, just dubbed to people.

Mantar - The Wrath of Hornuk the Great demo '98

Mantar (fra) - The Wrath of Hornuk the Great demo I 1998
1) The Woods Are Our Temple
2) Sodomized for the Cult
3) Unholy Conquest
4) Cult of the Witchdemon

Yandex / Depositfiles

Mantar - The Wrath of Hornuk the Great remaster 2005
1) The Woods Are Our Temple
2) Sodomized for the Cult
3) Gathering of Vicious Souls
4) Unholy Conquest
5) Feast on Satan's Cunt
6) The Wrath of Hornuk the Great
7) Cult of the Witchdemon (The Second Coming)

Mega

How about a non-metal contribution today, just for change? This here thing was sent by our comrade zargonath a few months ago and it's (according to the note included) Mantar from France, not to be mixed with the reasonably well-known current German one. Our subject was formed by two men in 1996 who went by the nom de guerres Lord Tenebro Maleficium and Lord Silvins Mortificus, made this demo and disbanded in '99. Lord Tenebro killed himself a year later so slight scent of cult may be detected melding into the usual gravestench and tombmusk. Judging from the cover my educated guess would be that this was released as a CDr but I might be mistaken (remaster was, original was on tape so 50/50).

The first track starts with an odd glitchy sound which I'm certain is not part of the experience before moving unto soft tolling sounds followed by an extremely familiar bit which is stolen borrowed sampled(?) from somewhere very well known but I can't remember it now damn this is frustrating!!! Help me out someone less demented and I'll edit this later (it was Dimmu Borgir's Master of Disharmony, 1996 EP version! Thanks Eugene!). Right, it goes on for quite long, repetitive as expected, but effective despite the nagging familiarity (is it from a soundtrack? I know this damn it!) with some additional elements tossed in like slightly pompous sounding accented voices. The second track goes on with the same dramatic, soundtrackesque dungeon synth feel and most likely as a residual trauma from the first track I find myself wondering if I've encountered these sounds somewhere before. Third song, surprisingly... uh, mellow, despite its name allows me to shake of the mental shackle and enjoy the cheese. Last song re-introduces the vocals, one a normal spoken voice and the other a malicious black metal style hiss. My initial frown quickly softens as the voices are used very sparingly and well enough. To my surprise the track suddenly ends, almost prematurely and the demo itself with it, leaving me feeling a mite peckish. This is actually better than I remembered from the original, extensive two playthroughs session back whenever. Apparently another one that is best listened to at least twice in row. Standout track: number three.

UPDATE: It appears this might be incomplete which would explain how it felt too short. Comrade Eugene sent me a full version of seven tracks with an inlay, appearently the cover is from a 2005 remastered version. I wonder if it is expanded also or was the copy zargonath had just weirdly incomplete. Priests are now investigating, please wait warmly... 

UPDATE II: After a brief yet vigorous inquisition it appears the remastered seven song version sent by Eugene does sound a bit different and the songs seem slightly longer. Perhaps the speed is a wee bit different (it was a brief and vigorous not thorough inquisiton after all!). It is still uncertain to me if the original demo was really just four songs and the remaster is an expanded version or if it actually managed to miss three songs scattered in between the rest! For now I've decided to have both available, personally I like the fuzzier, more dungeony original sound better and haven't really had time to properly listen to the additional new content, so to say. Oh yeah, apparently the bio crap I picked up elsewhere (U-tube) was a pile of pig entrails as the remaster cover's linear notes seem to contradict them (ol' Tenebro's passing was not of the permanent sort for starters and he hogs all credit there, no mention of Silvins in sight). Odour of kvlt turns to sour reek of falsehood.

Shadowlore - Embers of Light Dying demo '96

Shadowlore - Embers of Light Dying demo 1996
1) As the Waters Darken
2) Embers of Light Dying

Zippyshare / Mediafire

Today's contribution by master Fenrirsson, thanks for the rip, takes us to United Kingdom which is not really too well known for black metal despite spawning the band that named the whole genre. In the mid 90's you basically had Cradle of Filth, Thus Defiled and Bal-Sagoth, COF starting as death metal and TD black/death, then if you dug a bit deeper you might encounter the likes of Dead Christ, Megiddo, The Fallen, Witchclan, Silence (which I still need to hear for myself, provided they even recorded anything!), Ewigkeit, Ordog and Xaztur. Oh yeah and Hecate Enthroned, never forget! They were really much better known for death and doom metal plus combinations of those. Hmm, where was I? Oh yeah, today's thingy, the only demo from Shadowlore, side project by Thus Defiled Pauls Carter and Foster-Dent. We have featured Thus Defiled extensively enough earlier so let's not go biographing this time. No cover as F was working with a dub so there's just the small image I looted from a crypt somewhere online.

This is the original two song version of the demo, there was also a later re-release by Dark Trinity Productions with two more recent songs on the B-side (which I'd be curious to hear), probably had a different cover too but that's pretty much all I know about that. Both songs are decent length so it lasts a bit over ten minutes. If you're familiar with the first two Thus Defiled albums, between which this was done, you'll recall they were black/death metal with increasing emphasis on melody on the second one as well as keyboards taking more prominence while the demo material was pretty much death metal tinged with black. This recording by the two Pauls is straight up synth black metal with black metal rasps, screams and whispers for vocals and machine percussion support. The sound is not too far away from the TD releases of the era really, the sparse instrumentation just makes it thinner and obviously less heavy. Both songs are divided into intro parts and "song proper" with the rest of the elements (vocals and percussion that is) joining the keyboards. I seem to enjoy this today more than on the previous listen, so perhaps it is again one of those things that grow on you? Can't help wondering how it'd sound with some guitar buzz thrown in. Is that a bass on the second track that I hear? I was under the impression it was just vox and synth, though it could be more keyboards shenanigans. Also, I'd really like to hear the two later bonus tracks so if you have that version please get in touch!

Sorg - Demo I 1995

Sorg - Demo I 1995 (?)
1) Necronomicon
2) Subtle Punishment
3) Chalice of Sin
4) Initiation
5) Für Dich
6) Chaos

Mediafire / 4shared

Let's stick to Germania a while longer. This is again a collaboration between me and comrade LKS. Well, to be honest LKS did most of the work ripping the tape and scanning the covers, I just divided it into tracks, which was quite a bit of work too! Alright, Sorg of Germany was somewhat a mystery to both of us, despite having access to the covers as they're not very informative. According to another demo, to which we return later, a man who calls himself Astaroth is apparently behind all the music and most likely instrumentation too. Looks like Metal Archives has been updated recently to mark him as the same fellow who handled bass and vocals in Fjell, we speculated this earlier but were not certain. Good to see user Uglur knew this for sure. As you see from the question mark up there the release year is uncertain, '95 is just a guess but could be '94 as well. Please confirm if you know.

Music on this demo is what I suppose should be called ambient black metal as it has enough metal elements on it to merit that sort of a monicker. Pushing it, maybe, but very gently. More like nudging or perhaps poking. Mostly slow tempo and moody material, black metal voices croaking, crooning and occasionally growling over funereal keyboards and strings (sounds like bass to me), plodding percussion, you get the idea. Lofi but clean sound, atmospheric and quite mellow on the slow long opening numbers, gets a bit silly on faster bits like Initiation. Very interesting for sure and I would need the second demo, third one we already have.

Wolfhord - Realm of Pagan Storms demo '98

Wolfhord - Realm of Pagan Storms demo 12/97 (1998)
1) Winds of Battle
2) In the Forest of the Nightwolfs
3) Southern Holocaust
4) Pagan Blood
5) Ancient War Spirit

RGhost / Mediafire

Our usual Sunday chill turns south with even more Southern material bringing the heat, courtesy of comrade unholydeath again. Thanks for the rip & scan! Continuing fluently where we left off at the end of last month this is Wolfhord, another side project by Herr Wolf, here known as Warlord von Ravenclaw. Non-metal material this time, "battle stuff" as the cover says seems a neatly vague description. This is the first demo, strangely referred to as demo tape 12/97 when it was partially recorded in January '98.

Five parts, roughly 18 minutes and this "battle stuff" of his is basically somewhat lofi, but very loud and messy mind you, ambient reminiscent of LLN projects (not that much really but got your attention now) and more importantly the various folk/pagan/etc/ambient projects hailing from Poland. The first long track is basically wind samples, synth and a voice groaning/croaking a few passages over it, all in noisy, gritty texture. Second one is more winds but this time dominated by electric guitar which is joined by percussion at times, very folky or should we say volkisch melodies. This pattern repeats for the rest of the demo, all tied together by the slightly over-the-top wind noises. I must dash off now so let's wrap this up quickly; if you dig the old Polish material in similar vein or are in general a lofi dark/pagan ambient enthusiast, dungeon synth connoisseurs included, you might want to give this a shot. Be cautious of the sound though!

Alviss - Fafnir demo I '96 (?)

Alviss - Fafnir demo I 1995 or 1996?
1) Eternal Forest
2) Aura
3) Übermensch

RGhost / Sendspace

It's already Sunday again, time passes faster than necessary. Let us chill then with some German dungeon synth contributed by, once again, brother LKS. Thank you! This is the first demo by the rather obscure Alviss of which I know practically nothing about and the covers aren't helping much. Just the band name, demo title, "demo I" and tracklisting. And some "borrowed" Tolkien art for cover and a sunwheel symbol inside. I was supposed to post this already long, long ago but had issues dividing it into tracks.

This is a very short demo, a bit less than eight minutes for the three tracks which also again blend into each other except where they don't; there's an unfortunate cassette-related fail on the second song "Aura" with the sound dropping out for almost two seconds. I included a "fixed" version with simply the blank bit removed but that does not sound right either. Blessed tapes, have I cursed them often enough already? So unless the artist originally managed to botch up all the demos I'd appreciate a rip with unblemished audio.

Music itself is minimalistic, simple and purely instrumental dungeon synth. That probably does not read as a very exciting description but once I got over the track division issues and the audiofail on "Aura" I've found myself enjoying this probably more than I should. Why not try it if you like minimalist one-man forest ambient?

UPDATE: I've been told that the Alviss material is to be re-released this year so look forward to that! I will return with further info once I learn more about it.

Aeternum Maleficium - The Sons of the Sun demo 1995

Aeternum Maleficium - The Sons of the Sun demo 1995
1) The Magnificent Magnitude of the Night Body (Parts I, II, III)
2) Chant to a Star

Zippyshare / Yandex

Let us chill out once again, but today's items comes with a twist: a plea for assistance. You might've noticed this name appearing on my want list and still remaining there despite the fact I'm posting the demo right here, right now. You see, me and especially the donor of the tape this '95 demo of überobscure Brazilian project Aeternum Maleficium was dubbed on are very keen on finding someone with, preferably but not absolutely necessarily, an original copy of this or failing that, a better dub than the one we (well, mostly me) were working with. The contributed tape was not terribly worn itself but the dub is of nth generation and leaves its mark. We've no cover or any other illustration to offer either so that would be really appreciated too. A band pic/logo would do also.

To the content: there are only two tracks which I hope to have divided correctly. The first one is way longer of the two which is fitting as it should contain three parts. The second one runs in usual metal song duration. Dark ambient with somewhat otherworldly feeling to it, most of the time just synths floating around in the gentle waves of tape hiss, occasionally obscured by clouds of wear and buffeted by winds of tear. Some voices appear in the first track but they're scarce enough. And percussion, used also very sparingly and effectively. The sound forces my hand to add the dungeon synth tag too, this seems deserving. It's quite simple but pleasant and pretty relaxing, not at all harsh or threatening. The second track especially appeals to me today and makes me wish there was more. Somehow personally I've grown accustomed and even fond off of the challenges and limitations presented by the dub reminiscent of an ancient scroll, stained and nearly crumbling apart whenever you pursue to study the contents. I fear a pristine copy might lack the aura of mystery and otherness this has, but still, get in touch if you have an original tape. Meanwhile this is recommended for fellow scholars with a fondness for imperfect visions.

Blackthorn - The Black Vision of Northern Kingdom promo '94

Blackthorn - The Black Vision of Northern Kingdom promo I 1994
1) Winds
2) In Moonlight
3) Gate to the Stars
4) Gloomy Forest of Sadness

Mediafire / Zippyshare

Polish black metal. This is the Blackthorn I was referring to in the Chors post here. We discussed the connections already in that post so I am not going to delve deeper into the mire. Sent by LKS around the same time as the Chors demo, thank you again! Cover image borrowed from the Metal Archives and as usual, full scans would be very welcome.

Old Polish TTF black metal made by two men, I suppose you know what to expect? Raw and crude, yet melodic and atmospheric stuff with obvious influences from their peers and the Norse senpais (read: Vikernes). Sound is a little on the thin side but fits this better than a "good" production would. It's a bit odd, unusual thing really if you consider there is only one "proper" track, the longest of the bunch In Moonlight. First track is an intro with the omnipresent winds sounds, third is a shortish instrumental and last one dungeon synth/outro. I find it more fascinating now than on previous listen a few months ago and recommend it heartily. That is all for now.