Funereus - Into the Autumn Shade demo 1992

Funereus - Into the Autumn Shade demo 1992
1) Intro - Commence the Rites of Burial
2) Into the Autumn Shade
3) Interlude - Among the Whispering Spirits
4) Ascension of the Infernal Sephiroth
5) Outro - Eternal Judgement

Rusfolder / Yandex

Our journeys take us now overseas from Norway, but unlike the vikings we're not making stops at Iceland or Greenland this time, instead heading straight for USA and resume where I left off in December with Funereus and their demo '92. With another demo '92! Confused? Don't be, these are two different recordings, this one made in June and the other in July and were both spread by different band members, this one by Rob Robichaud. And seeing how it is less known I'd assume in smaller quantities than the one known just as Demo 1992. It's probably pointless to try to call one demo I and another II since the timeframe is somewhat vague. As my contributor Cyclades wrote: "...what happened then is that different guys in the band chose various recordings from these sessions and kind of spread them around independently in an informal way. Thus, we get two different demos from a mere month apart featuring similar (but subtly different) material." For further background details read the old post, thanks again to C for the rips and information!

Let's speak about the content then, as seen the "main course" consists again of the same two long songs, served with an intro, interlude and outro which I think serve well to build the atmosphere. Which is, as in the other demo, morbid and heavy. The sound here is a little bit less clean but that just adds a touch of otherworldliness to the music and I must say I prefer this recording personally. The end result isn't as severe as Demo 1992 was but more unearthly and atmospheric. Another notable difference is that "Ascension..." is a longer version here with a fast part in the end that was later left off. Speaking of versions, Cyclades had this story to share about the title track's... well, title, and history: "The title/lyrics date back to 1990, at the tail end of Cartilage Ripper, when it seems they had slowed down into a more doomy entity. It was then apparently brought over for Funereus, which is the version you are listening to now. They then used the title again (but with totally different music) in Asmodeus, which eventually became the version from the first Evoken release, even through Robichaud was long gone at that point. Then even later, Ceremonium used it as the title of their first album!" Ceremonium was a New York death/doom band whose original members Oscar Matter and Victor Rivera (who had also been in Putrifact with Orlando) were good friends with the Funereus guys and apparently hung around at all of their recording sessions. Actually the name sharing dates earlier as their rehearsal '93 already features a track titled "Into the Autumn Shade" which then reappears on the '95 album. Well, it's not as wild as the use of "Tormentor" back in the 80's!

Enough talk, download this if you're into funeral doom, the other Funereus demo or Evoken. Recommended and hopefully the Asmodeus recordings also eventually surface.

Funereus - Demo 1992

Funereus - Demo 1992
1) Ascension of the Infernal Sephiroth
2) Into the Autumn Shade

Zippyshare / Mega

It's xmas eve and time to end my little advent Coven folly, (almost) daily posting feels too much like work. And what better way to do so than with some funeral death/doom? Recently comrade Cyclades approached me with some contributions and this is the first of them, the 1992 demo by Funereus from New Jersey USA. Funereus is kind of a pre-Evoken but about that more little later. There's no cover unfortunately, I found a semi-decent one online but wouldn't mind a full scan. As a side note, Cyclades believes this demo was spread more by Nick Orlando (who continued on with Evoken and Funebrarum which would explain why a track from this demo ended up as a bonus track on "Quietus" re-release with Peaceville), much of it via tape trading.

So you noticed I said kind of pre-Evoken? Well, here's some background, I quote more or less directly what Cyclades wrote me. Rob Robichaud and Phil Wilson originally came from an oddly named band called Cartilage Ripper that was around circa 1988 to 1990 and apparently played insane death/grind like Nuclear Death and Prophecy of Doom. Nick Orlando came from the group Putrifact, which at other times also included Craig Pillard from Incantation. He formed the band along with Robichaud, trying out a bunch of local musicians, including guys who shortly afterward went on to be in other local groups like Deteriorot and Ceremonium. After a while they recruited drummer Vince Verkay, from a band called Body of Christ, which included Bill Venner who would form Disma many years later. They recorded a bunch of stuff in the spring/summer of '92, spread the recordings and went into a studio that autumn to record tracks for an EP. However it didn't go too well because the studio guys had no idea how to record something so extreme (typical story from back then!) and they basically got disgusted and took a break. Wilson left, and then they reformed as just a trio under the name of Asmodeus with new material, and recorded something around the spring of '93. This was the real "pre-Evoken", as much of the early Evoken stuff is said to originate from this period, whereas Funereus was really an earlier and quite different sounding group. Then, Robichaud left and the band almost broke up for good, but they managed to continue on, eventually became Evoken, and the rest is history as they say!

Ok, that was a lot of names dropped, I guess it's best to say something about the music too, it's funereal death/doom metal, but much more malevolent and severe than many of the contemporaries were or Evoken would later become. There's significantly more death here, that's partially why and closest comparisons would be dISEMBOWELMENT, Lord of Putrefaction and I do hear some Thergothon in places too, but this is more intense than atmospheric and laid back. Ugh, I'm just dropping more names here, better stop and let you listen for yourselves. I'll post another Funereus recording (yes there are more than this) later, with a few more background notes. For now, enjoy some terrifying vintage death/doom.

Pohakka - Minä kävelen vetten päällä... demo 1997

Pohakka - Minä kävelen vetten päällä... demo I 1997
1) Minä kävelen vetten päällä...

Depositfiles / Mega

Still more from master Sorvali's stash, here's the one and only demo of the Finnish project Pohakka. You might remember I posted a rehearsal tape back in 2010? I didn't post any links to the demo back then as there was a pretty decent rip floating around and easy enough to find. Well, now that I got this rip I thought I'd upload it here finally. Comes with a cover scan.

Like some already know, this demo (and the rehearsal tape too, it's the same song in rough form) consists of only one, looong track which I've seen called both "Minä kävelen vetten päällä..." and "Untitled". Since the day I got a dub of this from a tape trader I've been under the impression it'd be called "Minä..." and I'm going to stick to that. The cover itself doesn't really waste words, only additional thing written on it is the contact address. What does it sound like then? If you're familiar with the rehearsal tape but not with the demo, this sounds softer, obviously more produced and has more elements and instruments added. It is still quite minimal and repetitive, almost more ambient than metal. Somewhere between funeral doom and black/doom metal might be close call. The softer sound, acoustic guitars and keyboards take away some of the rehearsal versions harshness and bring the mood to more contemplative, melancholic one. The vocals are very sparingly used which is a good decision, they're not really much to write home about anyways. It's quite pretty, moody music. Recommended if you like slow and atmospheric stuff.

Raven - Alone in the Mist demo 1998

Raven (fin) - Alone in the Mist demo 1998
1) Calls in the Cold Winternight
2) Shadows Beyond a Stone
3) Joining the Gathering of a New Kingdom
4) Woundheir
5) Alone in the Mist
6) Outro

Yandex / Zippy

Here's something I don't do too often, but since I promised to re-rip this demo to Pete back in October (yeah, not very fast I know!) I thought I'd make a new post of the fixed and hopefully better version of the rip. See the original here for notes and background babble. I didn't include the scan of the note with tracklisting this time, simply because I don't have that scan anymore and didn't want to dig it up again. Instead I had too much time in my hands some time ago and tried to whip up a cover for it, using someone's photo (sorry I forgot whose) that came up googling "in the mist" or whatever search I used back then. Couldn't decide which version to use so I just dumped all four into the folder and used scientific method to choose one here (rolled 4-sided dice). Which looks kind of lame.

Anyways, it's the music we're here for, right? Except for 'zine posts I suppose. Yes, so, what I wrote back then about the music hasn't changed, it's still gloomy and doomy and there's still tape wear but the disturbance is fixed and overall the thing should sound a bit better. If you didn't pick up the old version try this out if you like your music like a thick blanket; heavy and suffocating yet strangely comfortable.

The Eerie Sampler (1999)

Various Artists - The Eerie Sampler CD 1999
Wizzard:
1) I Am the King
2) The Night Darkness Rose
3) My Unholy Witch
4) Valley of the Stone Horns
Gravferd:
5) Jeg fornekter jesu' ord
6) Når kristendom er en saga blott
7) Av hedensk blod
8) De tapte sjelers hevnere
9) La oss slakte guds lam
Raven:
10) Quiet These Paintings Are
11) Outro
Darkwoods My Betrothed:
12) Enter My Black Dreams
13) Whispers
14) Dark Aureoles Gathering
15) The Diabolical Eve of the Nocturnal Holocaust

Reuploaded

It's not everyday the Coven fills requests, especially as "fast" as here, but these things happen so do not hesitate to try. This compilation, or sampler as they chose to call it, was pleaded for by one of my readers, comrade pagan and since it's been long sold-out and apparently not readily found I thought I might as well rip it from my CD. I had scanned the covers earlier for the Discogs site and included those images (reduced to about 600x600 size) in the archive.

The CD compiles two Eerie Productions releases, the Wizzard (actually still Wizard when the demo was released but the label went with the changed name for the disc) and Gravferd demos and adds two other demos, the already here posted Raven promo 1998 and Darkwoods My Betrothed (ex-Virgin's Cunt) classic demo II from 1994. I'm not sure how the Eerie guy came to pick the Raven and DMB demos to this compilation, probably out of preference and agreement with the artists, but they certainly are good picks and deserve to be released on CD form too. Wizzard's (or Wizard's really) demo I is also great, dirty blackened heavy metal and definitely worth checking out. Actually the odd one out of the four, the Norwegian Gravferd ends up as the least interesting one with their quite standard Norwegian black metal. It's not bad really, just nothing that special. DMB demo arouses so much nostalgia in me that I can't evaluate it in objective manner anyways. A cool compilation/split/sampler/whatever you prefer to call it.

Raven (Finland) - Rehearsal 1995

Raven (fin) - Rehearsal I 1995
1) Untitled
2) Calls in the Cold Winternight

Reuploaded


Spring time makes me lazy and sluggish, so excuse me for not feeling like writing much today. What better to go with that feeling than some slow and heavy music? And that's exactly what Finland's Raven offers. This here is an early instrumental rehearsal tape recorded some time in 1995 and spread around to some of the band's contacts. No cover, obviously, for this one.

Much of what I wrote back here applies to this two song rehearsal as well, but the sound is way better than I remembered... though I'm pretty sure I have another rehearsal tape somewhere so perhaps that one had worse sound? I think brother Grev has these rehearsals too so I guess I'll check with him. Mind you, this is a rehearsal recording still so it might sound quite rough to the casual listener. The first track was untitled at the time of the recording and I can't remember now what it ended up being called... but this way I'm staying loyal to the tracklisting, right? I find myself enjoying the recording, nevermind how unfinished, unpolished, rough and repetitive it may be. Recommended for fans of Raven/Shape Of Despair, funeral doom enthusiasts in general and others who want to listen to slow, gloomy and stripped down musick.

Raven (Finland) - Promo 1998

Raven (fin) - Promo 1998
1) Quiet These Paintings Are
2) Outro

Reuploaded

This is the other, and only official, Raven tape. It was released in 1998 just before they changed the name to Shape Of Despair, after signing with Spinefarm. I'm not sure if ripping and uploading this one goes against my self-appointed policy as it was released on CD as part of "The Eerie Sampler" back in... 1999? But since that disc isn't exactly readily available these days and Eerie Productions is (as far as I know) dead and gone too I thought what the heck, go for it.

Only one proper song and an outro on this release, but that's a long one and was re-recorded by Shape Of Despair for "Angels Of Distress" too. A little more sophisticated than the demo tape but still slow and heavy.

UPDATE: You might want to download the CD compilation "The Eerie Sampler" instead which is found here.

Raven (Finland) - Alone In The Mist demo 1998

Raven (fin) - Alone In The Mist demo 1998
1) Calls In The Cold Winternight
2) Shadows Beyond A Stone
3) Joining The Gathering Of A New Kingdom
4) Woundheir
5) Alone In The Mist
6) Outro

This version no longer supported, see the more recent post

Some different genre material for change, funereal doom metal from Finland, this is the 1st demo of Raven, pre-Shape Of Despair. This demo, like Metal Archives tells us, was not officially released, only copied for some people. So, no cover. I was one of those people and seems like whoever added the info to MA was not as the song titles were different back then (see above). I actually scanned the little note with the titles instead of the cover - yeah, quite lame I know. Anyways, better than nothing eh?

Music is heavy and suffocating, like people who have listened to Shape Of Despair can expect. Being a demo recording the sound is of course quite rough and there is a little tape imperfection at places. But since you are reading this blog I don't think you'll have a problem with that. It's cleaner than on the 1995 rehearsal tape I have somewhere (instrumental versions of these songs). This was one of the several bands of a group of individuals from Vantaa (at that time) and quite surprisingly (at least for me) the one that got places. I thought Wanderer would get signed. SW has released through Werewolf records the material of Wanderer along with Wintermoon's demo and some bonus tracks so see his site for that, other projects were I Flow In Depths..., With The Winds, Haven In Shadows, Vindasyl, Ainu and so on and on. Most unfortunately did not release proper demos and some not even rehearsal tapes. This one did, so give it a try if you like dark and slow music.

UPDATE: Mediafire link had a corrupt .rar, should be fixed now. 2nd one works.