Nietzschean Reprisal - The Great Hopelessness demo 2005

Nietzschean Reprisal - The Great Hopelessness demo 2005
1) Discipline and the Revisionist
2) Throatsaw
3) The Knife-Chaser Narratives
4) Irrational Hope
5) The Great Hopelessness
6) Promise Keepers' Collapse
7) Depression (Black Flag cover)

Depositfiles / Zippyshare

Another atypical post today, here's another of our comrade Chris's sendings from that bunch sent quite a while ago. The unusualification herein is the relative recentness of this release, dating to 2005 which is mere eleven years ago. This is the first and only demo by Canadian band Nietzschean Reprisal who play raw, noisy sort of black metal that sounds influenced by punk, industrial and, well, noise. Not that sort of straight up white noise several artists have been keen on putting out on tapes in the recent years, mind you. Ok sound though the guitars are kind of subdued in favour of very clear and almost funky (not really, don't get too excited) bass. Vocals are sort of strangled sounding shriek ran through some filter or effect. The music's not full steam ahead rush, tempo shifts abound and there are calmer bits in the ruckus strewn aboot. Again it seems my opinion about this varies greatly depending when I'm listening to it. Presently, coming to it already somewhat angry and irritated it surprisingly sounds better than on the last listen a few months ago. There's a slight resemblance to Diamatregon, which I'm very much into, in places. Not as good as D, no sir, but a few acres of common ground at least.

There have been other rips on the nets and I haven't compared Chris's version to them, but if nothing else sets this apart at least the supermassive cover scans do. I didn't bother separating them to a different download this time so be forewarned the .rar is large and almost half of it would be the scans. The seven tracks of music run for a bit over twenty six minutes, ranging from very short (less than two minutes) to surprisingly long opener (almost seven). That's enough from me, being as distracted as I am now I should not tarry. Grab this if you got curious or have a thing for Canadian sounds.

Blasphemy / Beherit / Samael - Live Split (bootleg '92)

Blasphemy / Beherit / Samael - Live Split bootleg tape 1992
Blasphemy (live in Vancouver '89):
1) Intro
2) Weltering in Blood
3) Demoniac
4) War Command
5) Blasphemous Attack
6) Fallen Angel of Doom
7) Goddess of Perversity
8) Nocturnal Slayer
9) Darkness Prevails
10) Desecration
11) Ritual
Beherit (live in Finland '91):
12) Intro
13) The Oath of Black Blood
14) War Command (Blasphemy cover)
15) Intro II
16) Hail Sathanas
17) Satanas (Sarcófago cover)
18) Witchcraft
19) Paradise, of Thy Demonic Host
20) Beast of Damnation
21) Demoniac (Blasphemy cover)
Samael (live in Switzerland '90):
22) Messenger of the Light
23) The Dark
24) Into the Pentagram
25) Knowledge of the Ancient Kingdom
26) Morbid Metal
27) Worship Him

Zippyshare / Mediafire

Looks like I didn't have as much time as I thought to post stuff before the festival - I'm leaving for Helsinki Thursday morning - so this'll be last before I return. Might as well make it another big one, here is a three-way split live bootleg tape released back in 1992. I believe most will recognize the performers here? Blasphemy was obviously the headliner for the first Black Flames of Blasphemy back in '09, there's the connection. Their part was recorded in Vancouver '89 and features most of the songs they did on the demo and debut album. Sounds messy but listenable enough, you can tell what's going on relatively easy. "Goddess of Perversity" is incomplete, there's a dropout unfortunately. The recording sounds a little different from there on, perhaps whoever recorded this moved a bit causing the missing bit?

Beherit have sadly not performed live during their apparently short-lived(?) reunion since the release of Engram in 2009. Their part here was recorded in Finland in '91 at unspecified location, most of their live performances took place that year. Sound is pretty abrasive, much noisier than Blasphemy's part and quite challenging to enjoy. Vocals degenerate especially badly, "Hail Sathanas" sounds just ridiculous. I wonder how people who ordered this tape back in the day for Beherit felt? Samael play nowadays forgettable semi-industrial metal and if their performance the other year at Jalometalli was an indicator, I'm happy they haven't been taking up slots at other events I've attended. However, their black metal era was excellent and this set is no exception. "Messenger of the Light" starts somewhere well into the song, missing more than half. That's more or less the only gripe I have about their part, recording sounds decent enough (especially compared to Beherit) and performance is fine. I should really go to bed so I'm not going to write anything else, grab this if you're a fan of the bands AND fond of bootleg tapes with "special" sound.

'. . . [l]ight am I' . . . - '. . . [l]ight am I' . . . demo 2006

'. . . [l]ight am I' . . . - '. . . [l]ight am I' . . . demo 2006
1) '. . . [l]ight am I' . . . I
2) '. . . [l]ight am I' . . . II
3) '. . . [l]ight am I' . . . III
4) '. . . [l]ight am I' . . . IV
5) '. . . [l]ight am I' . . . V
6) '. . . [l]ight am I' . . . VI

Mediafire / Rusfolder

I was quite busy last week so there was a bit of a longer than intended pause in posting. So let's resume with another reader contribution, this one sent by Ryan, thank you, and it's a bit unusual not only due the odd band name but the fact it's a relatively "new" release. This is '. . . [l]ight am I' . . . (yes, seriously) from Canada with his 2006 self-titled debut demo. Which had no tracklisting either. Really, is it so hard to come up with some sort of titles for releases and songs, this is getting old and it does not add any mystique to anything what so ever!?! /rant. Now that I've got that out of my system, back to the item. No cover scans and the only cover image found besides the one I was sent is a really, really tiny one on Metal Archives. And the one sent is just the same enlarged. Scans would be nice if you happen to be one of the 50 who actually has a copy.

The demo has a running time of over 42 minutes, well enough for a long play album, most of which is taken by the last ambient track (23 mins) while the others are more conservative length. Sound quality is good and music quite raw and somewhat primitive black metal, with machine-like percussion, vocals that sound something like a cross between Abbath and Akhenaten and riffs that give me flashbacks of various 90's releases and bands. Despite my initial skepticism it's not bad after all and the songs have variation despite the universally raw and stripped down execution. The last song which is dark ambient is way too long though, or at least the part where nothing happens overstays its welcome. Check this out if you're interested to hear what else comes from Canada these days ten years ago besides the artsier Quebecish stuff.

Waging the War (2001)

Various Artists - Waging the War compilation CD (2001)
1) Antaeus - Inner War
2) Negură Bunget - Immortality's Elegy: the Vampirism
3) Horna - Synkän muiston äärellä
4) Skjull - The Wanderer
5) Ragnarok - Certain Death
6) Frozen Shadows - Of Pain and Insufferable Torment
7) Lord Belial - Come to the Sabbath
8) Esker - Du Nord
9) Garwall - Par delà le bien et le mal
10) Thy Primordial - The Heresy of an Age of Reason
11) NostraDrama - L'hymne nocturne
12) Celestia - Darkness Enfolds the Sky
13) The Burning - Darkness Soon Will Be (rehearsal)
14) Veneficium - The Awakening
15) Azaghal - Ihmisviha
16) Demon Realm - Eternities Unbound Forevermore
17) Winter of the Black Skies - Rider of the Night

Rusfolder / Mediafire

Traditionally the pre-xmas season is aflush with compilations (though usually of the "best of" -variety) and I thought it'd be a good opportunity for the Coven to participate in this practice. Today we have a Canadian (from Québec to be more precise!) black metal compilation CD that I ripped and scanned some months ago. I don't really remember anymore if I had a real reason to do so, but since I have it I decided to share it. Sorry if I was supposed to post this earlier or if someone elsewhere requested it and I forgot. This compilation was the second release on Sepuchral Productions (which was founded by Frozen Shadows vocalist Myrkhaal). The label reactivated a couple of years ago, still concentrating on local black metal, but they do not sell this compilation anymore.

Seven out of seventeen participants hail from Québec so there is a good amount of local colour here which pleases me. Some of the bands are also a bit on the obscure side which is even better. Frozen Shadows is naturally included and I suppose many of the bands here were associates of Myrkhaal back then, the roster is international but with a slight emphasis on a few countries. Seven tracks were recorded exclusively for the compilation but I think (didn't check all of them) most if not all have since reappeared somewhere. Note that I've fixed some typos and inconsistencies on the tracklisting, most notably Azaghal's track "Ihmisviha" is spelled on the booklet and back cover completely wrong as "Immisvitta" - he probably misread Narqath's handwriting? Everyone plays black metal, ranging from the aggressive start of Antaeus to Thy Primordial's fast and melodic black to the more atmospheric approach of Negură Bunget but pretty much all have certain rawness and speed to them so the variation is slighter than usual. This is of course intentional, as the cover states "...this is not the place you will find cute and fashionable black metal". Might be a pro or a con, depending on your tastes, I don't mind the homogeneousness but admittedly a few more midpaced or slow tracks would've spiced things up.

Son Noir - Bloodtears rehearsal 07.10.1996

Son Noir - "Bloodtears" rehearsal 7th October 1996
1) Bloodtears
2) Queen of the Darkest Pit

Reuploaded

I didn't have the heart to break the current rehearsal streak, but I thought it's still time for a bit different release so here's something quite obscure again. This is a two song rehearsal tape, dubbed by one of my tape traders and it was one of those extremely random picks to be used as filler. I think there was at least one rehearsal tape more but probably no official demo. All the info I have is that it was a Canadian project and that's it. I don't know if this supposed to be an official release or not (being named and all) and if there was some sort of cover for this. At least I don't have it. More info would be welcome.

Musicwise we've basically a piano/keyboard and voice combo here, similar to Dutch Christs Nails and later Lamentation material. The longer title track is for me the better one here, using simple piano and a raw, anguished black metal voice. He sounds quite extreme at times and I wonder if he did vocals for any black metal band ever. The second piece is again moody piano but this time accompanied by a half-spoken, half-sung clean voice reciting the lyrics. This does not work as well as it doesn't sound very convincing. And when he goes to singing mode it's quite awful, as are the (fully) spoken parts. This is partially due his accent. Shrieks still work. However, this drops the overall rating for this recording. I suppose I should say something about the sound, which is quite good and clear. Well, it's just the keys and voice(s) so you don't need magick to make it work. I'm not 100% sure what to categorize this, I guess black ambient goes closest to home. I recommend the ambient and dungeon synth listeners to give this a try.

Funerary Call - A Comselh De Ors demo 1994

Funerary Call - A Comselh De Ors demo 1994
1) Da I Crip Ors
2) Battle for Conquest
3) With Fire and Blood
4) Fallen Monuments
5) Divine Sodomy
6) A Last Breath Before the Final Sleep

Reuploaded

One more for the road and another contribution, this one by brother Fenrirsson, thanks for the rip and scans! Non-metal material from Canada, this is funereal dark ritual ambient. It has some shades of dungeon synth too but I don't think I'd label this as that genre. Well, I'm not sure actually so I guess I'll wait Andrew's call on it.

Fenrirsson has ripped an original tape and edited the sound so it is clear and listenable, yet still sounds like something echoing from lightless subterranean catacombs. Murky and evil synth music with black metal voices and quite short tracks. I haven't heard the latest FC recordings so no comparisons to them. Listeners of dark ambient, ritual music and dungeon synth should check this out.