Sorg - Journey to Planet Satan demo III '96

Sorg - Journey to Planet Satan demo III 1996
1) Intro
2) Qual
3) Sathanas
4) Tod I
5) Tod II
6) Vacuumized
7) Journey to Planet Satan
8) Outro - Hail Satan

4shared / Mega

Let's post something quite disastrous today, here, as requested, is the third demo by German project Sorg which was mentioned on the entry for the first one. The second demo is still missing and the Coven would be very pleased to receive a copy, rip or a dub of it. Thank you. Right, this was in conspiracy with LKS again, thanks for the music and cover scans and as the title might tell you Astaroth must've been into Mysticum. Alas, this is not so apparent in the music.

What does that mean? Well, it is not industrial unhuman black metal for starters, nor is it the occasionally weird, other times moody and morose ambient/black metal mix of the first demo. It's mostly kind of annoying to be honest. More electronic and artificial sounding in general, with plenty of effects, wobbles and warbles and bad quasi-futuristic (think late 70's / early 80's lowest budget worst taste scifi-futuristic) instrumentation. I'd really love to hear the second demo and see how this development took course. It's probably meant to sound like a drugged out, nightmarish trip beyond the earthly sphere but I can't say that's the foremost vibe I get. It's not this bad all the way through, I admit, the less out of hand dark ambient parts like Tod I work better... until it starts to get silly again. Tod II would be pretty nice too if not for the utterly dumb voice bits, same pattern follows on Vacuumized. In general the later part of the demo is more agreeable. With appropriate substance abuse this might come across better, but so far I haven't managed to discover the genius here. If you feel bold, by all means take a trip to Planet Satan though I must refer the Norwegian travel service to be superior in all aspects.

Alastaro über alles (bootleg compilation)

Various Artists - Alastaro über alles bootleg compilation "2014" (CD-R 199? / 200?)
M.O.T.U. - Exclusive Tracks:
1) Maxillofacial Ultrabrutalectomy
2) Discodeath
3) Osteoporotic Tissue Fragmentation
4) Jazz Club Saturnus
5) My First Riff
6) Endotracheal Thrombophlebitis
7) Hopeinen kuu
8) Improvisaatio
Orvonton - Demo I 1997:
9) Intro
10) Hyperkrist - Kirkebrannens natt
11) Drep de falske
12) 'S.R.201'
Sacrilegeous - Exclusive Unreleased & Demo Tracks:
13) Haunted Mental Hospital
14) Ereht Tuo Si Hturt Eht
15) Naar skyggene vandrar over Hornafjörður
16) Blaspherious to Evil
17) Sacrilegeous Suicide
18) Into Evigheten
19) Død kalm
20) This Is Who We Are
Evil0 - Exclusive Unreleased Tracks:
21) G.B.H.
22) Scifi
Gothmog [fin] - Exclusive unreleased track:
23) Sathanas der Shoppe Bok Bok

Mediafire / 4shared

It was Father's Day today in Finland as well as in several other northern countries and I decided to commemorate it with another big post... actually originally I was going to do a non-metal item but then thought it was high time I'd post this contribution sent last year by brother Grev, who also happens to be a father so merry Father's Day G and thanks! So, certain portion of my readers love Sacrilegeous and I think we already mentioned this compilation in one of the discussions somewhere in the comment sections, note that it actually has no name: Alastaro über alles is just something Grev decided to call it when he sent the lot to me and I kind of went on with it. To the extent of making a phony cover for it. Yes, the "symbols" around Baphomet are this. Sometimes I really spend my time in dumb ways. Right, so it's sort of a bootleg yet kind of semi-official as it is ripped from a CD-R Grev got from master Necrodesecrator when he ordered a copy of the Nordic Landscapes of Hessdalen EP and asked if older material was available. He did not mention when this was and I've forgotten to ask so we remain uncertain until he eventually tells us. Because just asking him would be too simple.

A note with the tracklisting.

Enough backstory, to the contents. There's a bit over an hour of material, most of time going to M.O.T.U. (21:34) and Sacrilegeous (31:22) parts, while Orvonton and Evil0 both get their roughly six minutes of spotlight and Gothmog the Finnish version represents for 1½ minutes. Not very even division but considering those are his main projects it is to be expected. M.O.T.U. is a mixed bag, starting with an instrumental metal-lish song that wouldn't sound too much out of place on a Sacrilegeous demo, continues with techno-industrial, more almost jazzy and groovy metallic stuff, with and without bizarre robot vox to a schlager classic cover and improvisation. Orvonton starts with an "intro" of static noise, thankfully short, followed by fast and quite harsh (industrial) black metal with obvious and dominant drum machine. It's no Mysticum but interesting nevertheless. Sacrilegeous part here is in the somewhat calmer and more atmospheric vein, with the familiar sound. Mostly instrumental too. Contrary to what one might guess by the song titles, "Blaspherious to Evil" and "Sacrilegeous Suicide" are NOT thinly disguised Deicide covers, first is a synth track and second in the more usual Sacrilegeous metal track style. And so on, you know S. well enough by now. Evil0 is techno/industrial, mostly instrumental if you don't count some quite annoying voice samples. That's enough about that. Gothmog, perhaps surprisingly, is brutal and bestial black metal with unhuman machine drumming and sounds something like Havohej / Profanatica combined with Corneus / Grausamkeit, to make a really crude comparison. Or maybe not. But perhaps that gives some kind of an idea. Recommended obviously to all fans of Necrodesecrator's work as well as those constantly on the look for curiosities of the Finnish underground.

Caduceus - Middle Ages demo 1995

Caduceus - Middle Ages demo 1995
1) Intro (Legends Fall)
2) Middle Ages Part 1
3) Middle Ages Part 2
4) Middle Ages Part 3
5) Outro (Seeds of Desire)
---
(Unknown):
6) Untitled (bonus/advance track?)

Mega / 4shared

Since there were requests (well, one by comrade kingpossum) for dungeon synth in the recent vote I thought I'd post that next. This another sending by the same person who contributed the Daoine Sidhe rip. Thank you! Any and all extra information on Daione Sidhe would still be welcome, by the way. This one fortunately had a bit more informative cover, it's a project by a Lithuanian fellow who called himself Lord Caduceus Xul and according to Discogs has at least one more tape released under this banner. He has also been involved with a few other projects performing electronic, industrial and ambient sorts of music, including Drama with the late Lord Ominous of Anubi fame. (Large) cover scans are included.

There's five tracks of the demo proper plus an untitled track which is not mentioned on the covers and which we're not even sure if it's the same project or not. Could be a bonus track, advance of upcoming material or whatnot. It's a bit different from the demo material, more in... uh, pure ambient mode? I'm actually somehow envisioning some sort of 80's action film or TV show in my head while hearing this? Not the car chase with explosions and jumping over collapsed bridges bit, mind you. Still the overall sound is similar enough to believe it'd be from the same source. Would really like further info on this. The actual "Middle Ages" consists of intro and outro tracks and three parts of divided quite unevenly as the third part runs for over eleven minutes. But the durations are on the booklet so it's no mistake. Completely instrumental, very soundtrack-like (as in game soundtracks rather than movie) and obviously keyboardic sounds, no real attempts to masquerade as harpsichords, lutes, violins, horns or what have you. It does have an almost neoclassical feel to it at some moments but mostly it's rather upbeat pseudomedieval synth music fit for old game soundtrack from a person with connections and influences from the 90's black metal scene as a quick look at the thanks list reveals. Not bad, especially if you grew up with old computer games there is extra nostalgy involved. If you're looking for refined, dramatic soundscapes this will not be your serving of enemies' blood in their own skulls. Others might want to study this item a bit further, I seem to find myself enjoying the demo more on repeat listens.

NYX - Repressions demo 1996

 NYX (fin) - Repressions demo 1996
1) Come on and Do It
2) Carnival
3) They Take My Town
4) NYX
5) Headwind
6) Sounds of Eternity
7) Virtual
8) I Will Control You
9) Untitled

 Zippyshare / Mediafire

And now something different again, but at least moving in somewhat alphabetical order and that is good is it not? This is the '96 demo by Finnish NYX, most likely known to the readers of this blog from these old compilations and probably nowhere else. I got this dubbed from a trader comrade back in late '96 I think and don't really know that much about the band to say much further except that they seem to have been active a few years ago releasing an album in '09 and a compilation of tracks in '10. Sadly no covers and none seem to be found presently online either. I'm not really sure if any were made to start with.

I should probably mention that this is already a very old rip, it took me ages to get back to it as I wasn't sure about the tracklisting, spelling of the band name and other such trivia. I eventually decided to ignore the minutiae until corrected and just post it. Then I forgot it lying around the old files. Good job! The issue with the tracklisting was that it seemed to have an additional track which I've then labeled as just "untitled" and that's enough about that. If you've listened to the compilations referred to earlier (Carnival appeared on Freeze 2) you might remember this is sort of electro-industrial wave-ish stuff, with trip-hop and other random-word-combinations-I-might-decide-to-drop bits in it. I don't clearly know what I am talking about. But if you enjoyed the compilations referred to and what little you heard of NYX on them this might be right up your alley. I think I need to assume a horizontal position on the couch after tonight's alcoholomantic experiments.

Susurrus Inanis - The Shadowless Shining demo 1997

Susurrus Inanis - The Shadowless Shining demo 1997
1) Now I Know...
2) Such as This Water
3) In My Memory
4) Keep the Sun
5) And I Shall Never
6) Left Shallow
7) Nam Lux Sum

Rusfolder / 4shared

Bandcamp

Chillout zone presents a request today. Eugene asked me in January if I would rip and scan my copy of Susurrus Inanis' only demo as it seems to be somewhat hard to find presently (it actually isn't). I hesitated for a bit and then thought why not so here we are. After a usual delay, that is. Jason Walton (of Agalloch fame) and Daniel Breyer (former Agalloch member, nowadays a professor) were the men behind this project, both playing keyboards and sharing the vocal duties. I had some sort of an insert to go with this, or maybe even two, with lyrics I think and some kind of a bio/assorted background info but unfortunately I didn't come across it. If it happens to be found I'll scan it/them too.

Very good sound combined with the coloured covers and printed tapes give this a very professional appearance and could make one think this'd be a cassette EP or mini-album but it was quite explicitly stated to be a demo. Opening piece is a pretty instrumental intro piece and the following song is rather gloomy and gothic, complete with deep vocals by... one of the guys, I don't know how they shared the vocal duties, the extra material I had might've shed light unto the matter. Anyways, the vocal presentation varies throughout the release but I'd consider these to be one of the main vocals. Somewhat reminiscent of late mr. Steele at times. Next song features the other prevalent voice, a more subdued and emotionless spoken voice that on a later track also sings some lines. Other variations include vaguely black metallish whispery hiss, a more jaded sounding version of the second main voice and so forth. General feel is more darkwaveish rather than ambient really and not much dungeon synth to be found in my opinion. After actually having a proper look I also noticed that JW has this on a bandcamp page so you might want to consider supporting him by getting this from there. But I encourage you to give this a shot if you enjoy atmospheric gothy sort of keyboard music/darkwave, are an Agalloch fan and so on.

Apeiron - Stardust demo 1997 [updated]

Apeiron - Stardust demo III 1997
1) Posting on Streams of Anti-Matter
2) Pan's Journey to the Cosmic Void

Mega

Haven't I seen this before might be what a lot of you are thinking now. And yes, you have, here. Unfortunately that time around we were operating under misinformation as comrade Running Wild pointed out, a friend of his owning an actual copy of the tape. See below for an image of it, you can (somewhat barely) see the tracklisting there.

This is why we really need full cover scans, readable ones, for everything. The music is naturally still the same, I just divided it into the two tracks. There was even an obvious pause which I did notice when listening to this initially but for all I knew the tracklisting was "Stardust". Well, better to have things cleared up later than not ever, please download this again if you got the original version and if you didn't grab this the first time around, well, do that now if you enjoy "cosmic light ambient" or are a fan of Dreamlord's other work. Next post is going to be something else than ambient, this time for reals!

The Dark Funeral - In Thy Forest... demo 1993

The Dark Funeral - In Thy Forest... demo II 1993
1) Intro
2) Fullmoon Rites
3) The Funeral
4) In Memoriam
5) Mørke tider
6) Mourning Shadows
7) Eternal
8) After the Battle
9) Outro

Version 1: Natural hiss
Mediafire / RGhost

Version 2: Noise reduced
Reuploaded

Next stop on the tour is, unsurprisingly if you can read a map, Denmark and here's yet another contribution, the second demo by the elusive one-man synth project The Dark Funeral. Not to be mixed with the slightly better known Swedes. I've been looking for the two demos of this project since forever, inspired by the interview on Blokong 'zine and finally scored the second one so many thanks to the sender, you know who you are! Sadly no cover scans so I just had to use the picture from the 'zine, I could've also used the logo (see below) but Blasphemous simply needed to be my pick.

However, all is not peachy as the rip was from a heavily circulated dub with absolutely massive amount of tape hiss. It's like a faucet running, not drowning the recording but pretty darn nearly. So, I resorted to what I don't usually do and tried applying noise reduction filter to diminish the admittedly distracting hissing. The result is okayish, works a little better on synth stuff like this I guess, but you can still notice the filter's unfortunate side effects in places. I'll leave the choice to you then, pick either the version with the hissing included for more "natural" experience or the reduced version which has less extra distraction.

As for the music itself, like I thought it'd be it's a rather typical one-man-and-his-casio-in-the-woods sort of project, which I don't really find a bad thing after all! Somewhere between darkwave and dungeon synth, the nine tracks are generally a bit on the shorter side (total running time is a bit under 23 minutes) and rather varied, from the 'waveish "Fullmoon Rites" to solemn "The Funeral" and minimalistic standout "Mørke tider" - despite this it still overstays a little, but this is definitely a recommended listen to all into kitchy dark synth stuff! And I really want to hear the first demo.

Vale of Pnath - Hymn of the Plants demo 1998

Vale of Pnath - Hymn of the Plants demo 1998
1) A Meadow
2) The Flowers
3) Heart of the Deep Forest
4) The Trees Attack
5) A Silent World... Totally Green

Rusfolder / Mediafire

Let's chill again for Sunday evening and this time with another, very interesting, contribution by master Sorvali. Thanks for the rip and scans to him and this is a synth project by the Cult of the Lizard God member Lucy Poems. Not to be mixed with the much more recent technical death metal band, also US, using the same Lovecraftian name.

Music is synth stuff here, as I already said and though looking at the titles would at first suggest this might be more at home at Ritualistic Nature, this has a certain threatening, otherwordly feel to it, rather than serenity of nature and such. Or I might just be letting the Lovecraftian project name and slightly spooky cover art get into my head. Almost purely instrumental (odd vocal effects are added from third track on) and mostly just keyboards (distorted strings take an active role in the fourth track) this is an enjoyable piece that starts rather minimalistic and adds elements, wandering in the realms of dungeon synth, darkwave and nature ambient and whatever. Recommended for my ambient-oriented readers, I'm afraid I must make a run to the convenience store right about now.

Solanum - Spectral Poetry demo 1999

Solanum - Spectral Poetry demo II 1999
1) Fortuna
2) Oceanic Abyss
3) This Time...
4) Spectral Poetry

RGhost / Depositfiles

Hollow Myths

Here's one of my requests just recently fulfilled by a reader, thanks you know who you are, and as I know there are other people who are interested in this I decided to share it soonish. Second demo of Solanum from Deutschland, see here for the first one and some background information. Unfortunately no cover scans, only a small image from Discogs was found. 

Like the first demo, this is ambient. Almost same running time too with all of the four tracks running over six minutes. It starts very similar to the previous one, though whispery vocals are added earlier this time around. Very similar, but the following tracks break the pattern a little each and go further from the core style, third one with it's half sung, half whispered and later half screamed vocals and first bouncy then more aggressive percussion especially. The last track is more electronic and the beat brings EBM stuff to my mind(!). I'm actually having my second listen to this as I write so I'm only getting to know the release myself, but can already say this time around feels better than the first which made me (unsurprisingly) frown at the changes and differences. You know, instead of reading this crap you could and should be listening to this for yourself. Act now!

UPDATE: There is a CD re-release of both Solanum demos available from Hollow Myths, get your copy from the link added up there! 

Apeiron - Stardust demo 1997 [incorrect]

Apeiron - Stardust demo III 1997
1) Stardust

Removed, tracklisting was wrong
Reposted here

Sunday evening chill out zone and time to resume my project of uploading Stefan "Dreamlord" Traunmüller's back catalogue. Of demo tapes, that is. Here is the third and I think final Apeiron tape, yet again acquired in conspiracy with brother Grev and his anonymous ally who provided the rip. Thank you, gentlemen. I've picked up the cover image from Discogs, full scans as usual requested.

Like you see from above, this demo consists of only single track that lasts almost 23 minutes. The description "cosmic light ambient" written on the Discogs page is fitting enough, this is quite tranquil and otherworldly stuff, not that dark either. Comparisons to Neptune Towers seem justified. The first part of the demo is the more passive build up stage, things get busier later and instrumentation more complex, adding percussion and moving to almost tribal territory. Things calm down again, get busy and so on till the end, last part adding some voices as well. I find this a pleasant listen every now and then, give it a try if you liked the previous efforts and if you disliked elements like electric guitars there this one might work better for you.

UPDATE: As Running Wild informed me, the tracklisting here is incorrect. Or rather, it's not been divided to the two tracks it consists of. Sometimes the laziness and ignorance of people just pisses me off. Like the Discogs entry for this, you're supposed to own the products you add there so how about reading the covers? Jesus. I assume Grev's friend who sent him the rip had a dub and no covers so at least he has an excuse. I'm reposting this as a new entry with the corrected info.

Freeze 2 - Finnish Electro-Industrial Documentary 1995

Various Artists - Freeze 2 - Finnish Electro-Industrial Documentary (1995)
1) Chaingun Operate - (Ogre) The Disk Killer
2) NYX - Carnival
3) Control Is The Key To - Kerosine
4) [Active] Media Disease - Blessing
5) Scoutgabe - Chosen Saint (Ground)
6) The Insult That Made A Man Out Of Mac - Underhygiene (Mediascape Edit)
7) Corporal Feast - E=D#Ø1
8) Neuroactive - Surface (Neurogenic Mix)
9) Disaster Village - Core Melt
10) Sweating Sickness - Oblivion
11) Nail - Destroy Your Own World
12) Shade Factory - Missing Again...
13) A-Tyd - Stroke by Stroke
14) Bulimia - Gde Ugodno
15) Feminine Fist - My Crystal Clit

Mediafire / Rusfolder

Here's something for you to chew on a Friday afternoon, another "...and now something completely different" post similar in spirit (and content) to Plastic Sampler here. Though not as gothic and much more electro-industrial (heavy emphasis on electronic). Ripped from a tape (caution!) which was dubbed from CD back in '97 or so, should be good enough quality. Cover images blatantly stolen from Discogs.

This compilation lasts just a bit over an hour which is a pretty heavy enough dose of this material to the uninitiated and probably leaves the cultists asking for more. I suppose I'm personally more in the middle ground here. I'm really, really poor with these subgenres so I don't think I'm going to humiliate myself more than necessary attempting to tell what's what, let's just say this ranges from danceable EBM to spaced-out electronic to cyberpunk electro-industrial to creepy bits. Besides I'm kind of busy today, got places to go and things to do. Recommended for people who liked Plastic Sampler and related posts already, feel adventurous and relatively open-minded or need music for their 90's goth-disco evening.

Wejdas - Dykra demo 1995

Wejdas - Dykra demo III 1995
1) Dykra

Yandex / Rusfolder

It's been a while but I suppose you still remember Wejdas? Today's item is their third demo, also released as cassette on Dangus and like the previous ones it's not my rip but sent to me by a reader. Thanks, you know who you are! This item was also re-released in CDr-format by a German label back in 1999, in limited edition of 250 copies. I'm pretty sure they're sold out by now. Includes cover images (which conveniently again verify this as a demo recording instead of cassette album) which look exactly like the ones at Discogs.

This time they've released the whole thing (over 47 minutes, though the cover says 45) as one single track titled "Dykra" even if it could be pretty easily split into 5-7 parts, depending how chop-happy one feels. Obviously I did not do that. It does feel like a lot for one sitting, but on the other hand at least I tend to listen to albums (and most other releases) completely from start to beginning and there's plenty of variation so no big issue. The moods and genres vary from brooding dark ambient to folkish/tribal to industrial sounds. I like the bit which starts with percussion and slowly adds elements that appear and vanish again to it, including voices, heavy distortion and so on. Then there's oddly distorted vocal parts, piano and keys driven section and even a bit that basically sounds like industrial metal near to the end. Quite a trip. I suppose I'd recommend this to people who enjoyed the previous Wejdas tapes and/or some of the following: ambient, progressive music, experimental, soundtracks, neofolk, dungeon synth, generally weird things posted here.

Dark Art - Necromancy demo 1995?

Dark Art - Necromancy demo 199..5? 1996?
1) Revelation
2) Necromancy
3) Magic
4) Dark Side
5) Possession
6) Agony

Mediafire

So I was drinking some gin and beer and probably vodka soon seeing that the other stuff is running out and thought: "Why don't I post something on the blog?" Seemed like a good idea and following that I am posting yet another contribution, this time a bit more mysterious release as my divinations haven't revealed much about it. My contributor didn't have a lot to say either, it's "an obscure French synth demo" to quote him. Thanks for the contribution, you know who you are! Right, this is a demo by a one man effort called Dark Art, includes photos of the covers which are not too informative. I think this was released around mid-90's but could be horribly wrong. I'm not sure if I've seen any mentions of it in 'zines, the name being very generic it's easy to forget! So, if you can verify the year this was released it'd be helpful and naturally any further info is welcome.

Enough babbling and to the main course which would obviously be the music. Six chapters for almost 28 minutes, with a concept that should be pretty obvious looking at the titles. It starts off bombastic enough with pounding percussion in what seems to be an introductory segment. By the way, this isn't my rip but I divided it into tracks and am not sure if it went right or wrong so blame me for that. The intro section is followed by also percussion-heavy main part which has more synths going on. It actually sounds more electronic than dungeon-like, even if I have categorized it into ds, possibly due the sounds used and the prominent percussion. There are quite brooding segments and the next piece is more forlorn in overall tone, despite the quite tacky electronic drums. I wish I had more gin, the vodka is not complimenting this as well. I like this piece more than the previous one. "Magic" continues from where "Necromancy" left off and makes me again wonder about my track divisions, but it has interludes that are... different. I'm not going to go track by track here, sufficient to say it stays generally in the similar vein with variations, thankfully instrumental and with a helping of cheese you might or might not enjoy. All dungeon synth enthusiasts, lovers of man-and-synth-in-the-forest - projects and eccentrics should give this a go. Velkaarn out.

Final Frontier - When Destiny Falls to Ruin demo 1995

Final Frontier - When Destiny Falls to Ruin demo 1995
1) When Destiny Falls to Ruin
2) Lifeforms Observe
3) Kasus Remylik
4) Homebound
5) Impulse Consumed

Depositfiles / Rusfolder

Let's stick to non-metal sounds. Back to Norway and the probably only release by the industrial project Final Frontier, not to be mixed with the Canadian AOR group, which I'm not sure if it should be called a demo, but since that's what it looks and sounds like, I'm calling it that. I got this tape some months ago, having ordered it out of idle curiousity caused by the affiliation it has to Dunkelheit, Remyl and other 90's Norwegian industrial projects (see Ornament #1 for more about some of them). Cover scan enclosed.

As it is ripped from my probably original tape the sound quality is pretty much as good as it gets. Mind you, it's an old tape, recorded on a four-tracker so the sound is not hifi. Music is industrial and electronic with both slower and slightly faster tempos. The first track sounds like it has excess hiss in the background but that would appear to be part of it. Some voices are included, ranging from spoken parts to actual harsh vocals. It is quite gloomy overall and I seem to be at loss of colourful descriptions here... well, it's not exactly sunny and bright pop music either. I recommend you to give it a shot if you're into industrial, I'm off to buy food.

Oath - Oath (1996)

Oath (cze) - Oath cassette album 1996
1) Cursed
2) Petrified Souls
3) Stone Portal
4) Grey Nymph
5) Surrounded by Fog
6) Vicious Circle

Reuploaded

I haven't posted much non-metal lately so let's do some now, starting with a rather fresh acquaintance from the Czech Republic, yet another project suffering from a bit too simple name shared by many others, Oath. There isn't really much info to share, I bought this on a whim from a seller on Discogs a couple of months ago, it seems to be a self-released tape album, even though a label is printed on the cover. Which is, naturally, scanned and included with the download.

Almost an hour long this certainly is a long play in that sense. All the tracks are quite long, from 6½ minutes to fourteen. As you probably expected, it is dark ambient, this time mixed with industrial elements and despite epic track lenghts remains rather "active" so to say with percussion et al. No voices are used so it's instrumental except for some samples. Overall it brings mind a meshup of various CMI artists and sounds generally bleak and uh, dark. This isn't one of my wordy days I suppose. There are some dungeon synth-like moods and parts too but in general it's more raison d'être than Mortiis. It's a bit longer than necessary but a recommendable listen if you enjoy this sort of music.

SS 2666 - Promo 1997

SS 2666 - Promo 1997
1) Bloody Charriots
2) Holocaust Thunder

Yandex / RGhost

Let's do a quickie today and also something different. And obscure, you see, this short two track promo tape was sent to me by one of my tape traders in the 90's and the only info he had was that it was promo 1997 and featured personnel from Prophecy (pol), Hermh and possibly some other band which I now forget... though the Discogs entry to a compilation CD "Brum numer 50" featuring the first track here credits only two people, Bartłomiej "Bart" Krysiuk for lyrics and Szymon Czech for music while Christ Agony website's bio mentions Marek Kutnik also as a member. And that's pretty much all I've got... until I asked Bart who supplied me with tracklisting and told me they had been preparing for a full length album which was never finished and this tape didn't have any covers or such. Apparently they've also recorded something in 2005 also and Witching Hour might release the SS 2666 material as a 7"EP.

Until that happens we're stuck with my rip here which is ok quality, unfortunately the tape seems a little worn in places and you can hear the results occasionally. The first track can be found in better quality as it was released on the compilation CD I mentioned and the possibly upcoming Witching Hour release will be remastered, Szymon had done that before his death. I guess a few words about what this sounds like might be necessary? It's a mixture of industrial/electronic metal with electronic and industrial beats, metal guitars, mostly harsh vocals, samples and so on. The sound would be good if not for the lacking dub quality. As a quick reference I'd say it's more ...And Oceans than Diabolicum. If these genres and their combinations interest you, it might be a good idea to check this out. Or if you're into the related bands. Not probably for everyone reading this blog.

Amon Hen - Skeleton-Dances adv.tape 1995

Amon Hen - Skeleton-Dances advance tape 1995
1) Landscape 2.
2) Landscape 1.
3) Dream?
4) Brainstorm

Reuploaded

Ok, let's do something different again, here is Amon Hen from Hungary and an advance tape/promo they sent around in 1995. This might be a rough mix or something of the cassette EP/MLP of the same name, don't remember for sure and of course I don't have the other tape at hand to compare! Anyways, this tape was released some months before the rather professional looking real thing. Cover scan is included.

So what is the music like? Hard to put to a proper category, for sure. I saw the older tape G.L.A.S.S. being described as avantgarde cyber metal which I suppose wouldn't be too far off the mark as there are metal elements to this, especially the first track. But overall I suppose this is closer to industrial or gothic sound, perhaps EBM even. This is the field of music where I need to tread carefully so I don't think I can pull of very convincing name dropping or comparisons this time around. So we have synths, samples, distorted guitars, spoken voices, effected vocals (robot vocals on track 4!), beats, atmospheric parts and more going on here. It's quite weird, uneven and kind of interesting. I guess I could recommend it to both very open-minded readers and those who enjoyed stuff like Plastic Sampler, Neverwood (either, really) or maybe even Landfill among earlier posts. That is all, next time either metal, ambient or a 'zine... I guess I'll roll the dice to see.

Poles Apart - Unreleased Ambient Tracks 1998-2001

Poles Apart - Unreleased Ambient Tracks 1998 - 2001
1) Alter Ego
2) Deathlike Silence
3) Nightblooming
4) Underwater
5) Gone in Tranquillity

Mediafire

A non-metal item today, here is the last stuff sent by Sascha, the unreleased tracks from his project Poles Apart, recorded between 1998 and 2001. Unlike the demo, which was instrumental symphonic/progressive black metal influenced by the likes of early Arcturus, Dimmu, Bal-Sagoth and "Nightside"-era Emperor, these tracks are dark ambient. It is just a collection of tracks, not a demo, promo or any other release like that and no, there certainly isn't a real cover for this, I just put that pic up there together for fun. I found the photo used by googling "skogen" and it's taken by someone called Josef Stuefer, hope he doesn't mind me editing and using it.

Ok, as I mentioned these are ambient tracks and recorded over a period of few years, though the sound is so similar they could pass as a single EP, MLP or something. Sascha himself referred to this material as dark ambient and it is atmospheric if not that sinister. More moody than menacing, gloomy rather than grim, otherworldly instead of oppressive - well, you get the picture. I'm not very good with the terminology for electronic music so I won't make more of a fool of myself by attempting a deeper analysis. Let's just say it's more Aphex Twin than MZ.412. "Nighblooming" is personally a highlight. Recommended if you enjoy ambient music, collect obscure releases or are just plain curious.

Divine Lust - Promo 1994

Divine Lust (isr) - Promo 1994
1) The Sick Rose
2) Forest

Reuploaded

I need some help with this curious little item - I have next to no info on it and would love to have what little I got verified!

Ok, so this is a short two song promo from (so I was told) Israeli Divine Lust and this is from the 90's, the longer track is based on William Blake's poem "The Sick Rose" and is moody gothic/electronic/darkwave piece which would fit right on the "Plastic Sampler" compilation I posted back whenever. The second, shorter track "Forest" has more prominent synth and a bit different, almost growly, throaty voice. It's probably based on a poem too. And would also fit on that compilation too. That's all I got, if you know anything and have links, images, whatever, please leave a comment.

UPDATE: Was informed this is a 1994 release, post updated to reflect that!

Neverwood - Grown demo 1997

Neverwood (fin - Lahti) - Grown demo 1997
1) Murder in the Kindergarten. Pt2
2) Headless
3) Grown
4) All Good Children

Reuploaded

This is again a bit different post and something I wasn't expecting either as I asked Grev to dub me this demo. You see, I thought it might be another demo by this Neverwood but turned out this was a completely different band. Even though there is a slight similarity as this one plays some sort of electro-industrial metal which reminds me of The Kovenant and Diablerie to drop some names quick. So naturally I was a bit dissappointed. Grev sent scans of the covers as well, much appreciated brother!

Like I said above, this reminds me a bit of few later 90's bands working in this area, but as this was not really my shot of vodka even back them I'm not too familar with many projects of this kind. The main issue was that they were too light and this demo isn't very heavy and neither is it very dark. However, if you approach it more from an electronic/industrial music angle than metal it works much better. I personally prefer the less metallic but gloomier atmospheres of the last track. Check it out, you know you're curious now!