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!

Sirrah - Acme demo '95

Sirrah - Acme demo II 1995
1) Acme
2) Passover 1944
3) On the Verge
4) A.U.Tomb
5) Iridium
6) Pillbox Impressions
7) Panacea
8) Bitter Seas

RGhost / Mediafire

Some of you might not be too impressed with today's post, sure, it's not a TTF-relic dug from a sealed tomb but hey, at least we're in Poland again! Yup, it's melodic death/doom with touches of gothic, think stuff like earlier Paradise Lost (not "Lost Paradise" or demos early!) or perhaps more accurately bands inspired by their "Gothic" album? Anyways, Sirrah from Poland released two demos, two albums (first of which was a re-recording/-arrangement of this demo) and an EP on their few years of activity around the mid-90s, to apparently re-emerge in 2013 with two new songs released so far. And this is the demo II, though I think I saw it referred as cassette album too. The running time would allow it to qualify and sound is not at all bad either. Much better than certain economically produced albums. Some of the songs date back to the first demo from '93 already so they've taken their time to refine 'em.

I haven't actually even heard the re-recorded album version, though it did catch some attention being released by Music for Nations. Or actually I might've heard it whilst drinking at certain associate's place, pretty sure he had it. Well, whatever, I wasn't really into them after all back then, I had originally come across this tape while looking for replacements for Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Tiamat whom I considered to have wimped out, become all girly and/or sold out, to differing degrees. This must've been early '96 or so. I already knew several more or less exotic alternatives such as Dissolving of Prodigy, Silent Stream of Godless Elegy and Love History to mention a few Czech examples but sought more. For various reasons I didn't like this tape, possibly something as seemingly trivial as the odd song titles, can't be certain anymore. Now it doesn't sound bad at all, even the always difficult clean vocals work ok. The song Iridium is a bit annoying though. Too modern-metallish if you know what I mean. Might be about time I gave their albums a chance too. If you enjoy the bands mentioned so far you could do worse than giving this a listen. The rip was made from a traded copy so imperfections are inevitable. Pretty good overall and it features tasteful, artistic nudity on the cover so obviously it has a redeeming quality even if gothic doom isn't your bag.

Congestion - Live at Lutakko 07-05-94

Congestion - Live at Lutakko, Jyväskylä 7th May 1994
1) Intro (Cold Wind Blues)
2) Throne of Dominating Force
3) Bed of the Ancient River
4) Burnt into My Mind
5) When the Sun Rises in the South
6) Wind Convoys
7) Unblessed

4shared / Mega

More Finnish metal in co-operation with me and brother Grev (he dubbed, I ripped) this is once again Congestion, possibly the band with most place-holder covers on this blog. A gig performed at the well-known venue Lutakko in Jyväskylä, with a new keyboard player on board (trivia courtesy of stage banter, no actual personal knowledge!), they perform all the tracks from the '93 "Bed of the Ancient River" demo, two new (well, three if you count the intro which changed into an outro) songs which would appear on the '94 promo and an oldie Unblessed. Pretty good sound, though the start of the recording is a bit wonky but that gets better soon.

It's not a very long gig, I'm assuming they opened up for someone that Saturday or perhaps participated in some sort of event? Why am I making guesses, this is 2016, let's google... yeah, it was "Metal Up Your Ass" with Deceiver (apparently headliner? death/thrash), Scum (death metal, signed with Black Mark), our boys Congestion and Kansa Taisteli (an old punk band) and here's actually the poster:

Would be actually kind of neat to hear the rest of the bands if someone recorded the whole event. But I'm about to digress again so back to Congestion. If you've heard the demo material and/or Let Me Dream debut album you know what to expect: groovy and melodic doomy death metal with gothic touches (mostly the less-than-stellar clean vox and not-stellar-but-nice keys). It sounds quite pleasant live, I presume better still under the influence of intoxicants, mostly flows nicely. Not a horrible place to start listening to Congestion either if you're unfamiliar with them but got interested. After all I'm sure many people have gotten into bands with live albums, think "Alive", "Decade of Aggression" and "Live After Dead" for example. Not that this would be on par with those but you get the idea.

Dying Wish - ...On Twilight of Eternity demo 1998

Dying Wish - ...On Twilight of Eternity demo II 1998
1) Faces Behind the Mirror
2) It Hurts Again
3) With Brush of Madness
4) The Last Reflection
5) Somewhere in the Deep
6) Under the Dreams

Mediafire / Depositfiles

Let's do some (probably) easier listening today, this is a demo I bought as a victim of false advertising from a distro back in '98 or possibly early '99, the second tape by Hungarian band Dying Wish. It was supposed to be similar to Moonspell's "Wolfheart" which I was quite the fanboy of back in the day. It was not. It's labeled as melodic death metal on the Metal Archives but when the first song kicks in you're probably thinking "gothic metal" or possibly something I'm too refined to type here. It's really closer to Paradise Lost when they decided to turn girly metal back in the early mid-90's except with some growls tossed in. Not a very good name drop to be honest, but I'm not so fluent with these melobands. Think Century Media/Napalm (mid-90's onward) roster stables or Swedish melodic metal bands. Ripped from an original cassette so the sound is good. It's not like I had worn the tape thin on this one. Covers scanned too.

So I was dissappointed with this when I got it and as you probably read between the lines already I'm still not very wild about it. But I suppose I could try to say something more, the tape runs easily into album length as most of the six songs are pretty long. The main clean singing voice is decent enough not to be annoying and isn't too high on the mix. It's decidedly amateurish too but that's not really a problem. The occasional death grunts are pretty standard fare, deep unlike the main vocal. Playing is competent enough, music mostly quite fast paced and upbeat. I'm running out of things to say, I still don't really like it but neither do I hate it. I guess you'll know if you want this.

Lullacry - Weeper´s Aeon demo '98

Lullacry - Weeper´s Aeon demo I 1998
1) Whisper in the Chaos
2) Weeper´s Aeon
3) The Autumn
4) I Will Make My Paradise

RGhost

Today's post is yet another thing from master Sorvali's hoard he sent me last year, thanks as usual and yes, it might seem a neverending trove but we are nearing the bottom of that vault. This is also probably an unexpected name to pop up as Lullacry got pretty well-known in the mainstream media as well before calling it quits last year (2014). Some folks may remember Coarse from which Lullacry evolved, they initially played death metal that got more and more melodic over time and actually some of the material from the later demos was re-recorded for the Lullacry debut album. The switch to female vocals from male grunts (though I haven't heard the late Coarse demos so I'm not sure if they were death metal vox or clean ones or a mix then) was a large enough change to warrant a new name. A reasonable move in my opinion. Full cover scans included.

I was slightly surprised to notice they never re-released the demo material as bands have been doing for a while now, to be honest I was under the impression the "Legacy: 1998-2014" compilation would have it but nope, that's not the case. Three of the songs here were used on the debut album, the title track seems to be exclusive to this release. I've never actively followed Lullacry so I can't honestly make very good comparisons between the demo and later album material, despite having seen them live several times (drunk, naturally) and having been subjected to quite a bit of second hand listening (plenty of that drunk as well). However, I can say the material here is still clearly metal (I am under the impression they went basically hard rock at some point), with some traces of the melodeath past, heavy metal and a gothic overall feel. To which Tanya's (aka Whisper Lilith of Soulgrind and formerly Gloomy Grim) vocals admittedly contribute a lot. The riffing brings to mind stuff like later Sentenced and at times Amorphis, to do extremely easy and lazy name drops here. And yup, Lullacry was more or less part of the same bunch of bands as Tanya's other bands and this demo was actually recorded at Lord Heikkinen's studio. And someone called Ville Valo offered some vocal assistance. Kind of easy listening, casual, fit-for-radio-play material, not very exciting in my opinion but not too bad or annoying either. Makes me a bit curious to try again some of their albums.

What would you like next? The options this time are:
More death metal! - 0
Even more gothic metal!! - 1
Lo-fi German demo racket!!! - 1
Curiosities of the Orient!!!! - 3 - WIN
Greek stuff!!!!! - 1
Leave a comment and exert your will to shape the future to your liking!

Angizia - Kissarna demo 1995

Angizia - Kissarna demo 1995
1) Ein Scheidelied
2) Heidedamm
3) Im Abendland
4) Schlehdorn einer Schattenwelt
5) Der Walstat Blüte wegen

Mediafire / 4shared

Let's do quickly another Austrian item, this time a contribution sent by comrade RunningWild, thanks! This is the '95 demo by Angizia, another part of the Napalm roster in the label's heyday and while technically this is really the second demo in practice it's the first and only as the March '95 demo "Nordheim" was unreleased. Wonder if anyone has it anyways? That was a subtle hint. Right, Angizia remain active and have released seven albums and a split with Amestigon which is where I heard them first and apparently have continued to progress to even further into avant-garde strangeness. I can't really say much about that as I've only heard some of the 90's albums and promptly decided it's not my sort of circus.

But back to this: five tracks of which three are short ones and the second and third long. Music at this point is still clearly rooted in the black/dark metal tradition and could be categorized either as black/gothic/doom metal or perhaps neoclassical dark metal. Raw black metal rasps and howls are the main voice. At times kinda reminds me of their countrymates Korova but less avantgardishly bizarre at this time. Many of the songs sound straight like classical music with black/dark metal vocals added with extra instrumentation. Not bad really, I should give their albums another go though I remember not being too much into the split the last time I took a listen. I'd love to write more but I must hurry so pick this up if you got curious and/or collect Austrian demonology.

The Equinox Ov The Gods - Watch the Shadows Dance demo 1993

The Equinox Ov The Gods - Watch the Shadows Dance demo II 1993
1) Resurrected
2) Thanatos
3) Angel of Death
4) The Waiting
5) N.L.S.
6) Where Roses Never Dies

Depositfiles

Here's another item sent by grindfreak at the same time as the previous post, this is again The Equinox Ov The Gods from Sweden with their second demo from '93. Thanks for the rip & scan! I presume he ripped this from an original tape so better than the dub of demo III I posted.

Demo II has a lot in common with its follower, both musically and in structure. Almost half an hour of material, starts with an ominous intro which this time isn't a separate track and turns into the same sort of gothic/doom/heavy metal as the demo III did. Well, a little slower here, maybe. Though they do speed up in some songs so nah, not really that either. Going to keep this short, if you liked the demo III you'll probably enjoy this as well. And vice versa. Oh yeah, Chopin's "Marche funèbre" is yet again borrowed in the last track.

Prophet - Thy Sky Takes You Away demo 1997

Prophet - Thy Sky Takes You Away demo I 1997
1) 8th
2) ¿
3) Land of Time

Depositfiles / RGhost

Some slightly different material sent by master Henri again, thanks for your donation to the cause! Prophet was a gothic metal band from Helsinki who released a slew of demos under this monicker before getting a record deal and changing the name to Fragile Hollow. Or possibly the other way around, I don't really know much more about them than a quick look at Metal Archives reveals. However it may be, Fragile Hollow has released three albums so far, last in 2010, and is still supposedly active. Today's item is the first demo as Prophet and as with other master Sorvali's contributions, cover scans are included.

The demo has a pretty good studio sound, packs more punch than you might expect. Unfortunately it does get a little bit muffled when all elements are in play but not in that everything-muddled-I-sank-in-quicksand way or wrapped-in-fluffy-kitsune-tails sort of soft. More like you'd be walking in the dark and suddenly ground shifted to being moss covered. It's not really a bad thing, mind you. The voices are mostly sort of clean-ish singing with some growls thrown in. Despite not being the most accomplished of singers he doesn't actually sound bad at all, big part of winning my affection probably comes from not having the worst case of usual, dreadful strong Finnish accent. Not that there wouldn't be any cringe worthy moments, there's a part in ¿ that makes me grit my teeth. The music is ok, though there are some "modern metal" sort of chuggy bits that I'm not a fan of and I noticed myself starting to get a little impatient around the third song. Surprisingly decent to be in the end of the day rockin' modern-ish goth metal, makes me actually curious to hear the other demos. I might even try the albums they released as Fragile Hollow though I'm pretty sure they're not for me. But if this sort of music rocks your boat, makes your head spin, blood freeze in veins or whatever give them a listen.

Whispering Forest - Darkest Side demo III 1997

 Whispering Forest - Darkest Side demo III 1997
1) Curse
2) The Doomed
3) Untitled
4) Darkest Side
5) Green Eyes
6) I Shall Return
7) Last Sunset
8) Path of the Dead
9) Shine of Lethe
10) Black Orchid

Mediafire / Rusfolder

I thought I'd stay in the neighbouring countries and this time we're going south of the border. No, that's not Mexico, for us Finns it is a few hours on a boat (getting drunk is optional) and we arrive in Estonia from where hails this atmospheric death/doom band, the late Whispering Forest. They made (at least) four demo tapes, an album (released twice) and a demo or a self-released EP in 2001 before calling it a day. I got this rip, as well as some other Estonian items burned on a disc from comrade Veiko last year in Steelfest, thanks again! And yes, I took my sweet time getting to post this but I had a very decent excuse for at least part of the delay. Sadly I've no covers for this (if I had, things would be different!) so scans would be very much appreciated. I made a (pretty nice) placeholder "cover" for this too, but decided against posting it in case I get the actual cover scan later.

So what took so long? Simple, the tracklisting was incorrect and it's a real pain trying to figure it out with a band you're not very familiar with. Unsurprisingly, Metal Archives' entry didn't match either and Estonian Metal's was just copied from M.A. so no help there. Looks like that tracklisting completely ignored the intro/interlude tracks but it also had the songs in wrong (or different?) order. Fortunately most songs reappeared on the debut album and had lyrics available so once I got to work it wasn't as impossible as it seemed. And some of the others which did not reappear fortunately included the song title in the lyrics so it was pretty easy to guess those out. Anyways, I was still left with one untitled track, the third one which is a just below minute long interlude sort of bit. I toyed with the idea of just adding it to the title track as intro but then again the other two similar tracks were named and identified so I just left it untitled and separate in hopes of someone with a scan or at least more accurate knowledge appearing. The band's email address was naturally a dead end after all this time.

But enough of me whining about how hard I have it, let's talk about the music. It's atmospheric death/doom with gothic touches. Can I go now? Maybe a few words more, the obvious name drop is always My Dying Bride but instead of the UK folks I'm thinking about the various Czech bands like Dissolving of Prodigy, Silent Stream of Godless Elegy, Love History and what have you. Also the Norwegians The Sins of Thy Beloved comes to mind. Main voice alternates between bellowing death grunts and black metal-esque rasping croaks which is cool. The additional female vocals are, as expected, clear and ethereal and bring someone to my mind yet frustratingly I can't remember who right now!!! They're quite good, whoever it is I'm trying to think. There are some gothic touches overall but they get an extremely prominent front stage role on "Shine of Lethe" which is practically gothic metal/rock hybrid with vocals to match, unlike the album version they're male and the song is generally faster and a little "lighter" so to say. In general the versions here are refreshingly different from the later ones and the more I listen to this, the better I like it. Recommeded, especially if you enjoy atmospheric death/doom and related material. Now I want to hear the older demos too.

'Til Your Ears Bleed: Vol III European Attack (2000)

Various Artists - 'Til Your Ears Bleed: Vol III European Attack compilation tape (2000)
1) Moonsorrow - Taistelu Pohjolasta
2) Hödur - Unpure Race
3) Tharapitha - Demon's Night
4) Alcoholic Smashing War - Hail to a Long Awaited Alcoholic Victory
5) Eviternity - Cant IV
6) Tangrycan - Immortalize Sacrament
7) Consecrated - The Charming Voice

Rusfolder / Mediafire

Today I've decided to post another compilation tape master Sorvali sent me. Thanks again for the rip and scans to Henri! This is a bit unusual one, though unfortunately does not include extra goodies like the previous one's newsletter. The very non-standard length (a bit less than 38 minutes) is the thing that really puzzles me. Just about every other compilation tape ("A History of Time to Come" would be the first exception that comes to mind) was practically as long as the tape the person used (so either 60 or 90 minutes usually) and seeing as this was divided pretty evenly to two sides makes me wonder if the guy had scored a load of 40 minute tapes somewhere?

Ok, to content. Another thing that I was perplexed by was the timeline presented by the tracks here, four of the seven date to 1997, Tangrycan's track is from '96, Alcoholic Smashing War (jesus what a name!) dates to '98 and Moonsorrow is (again) featured with "Taistelu Pohjolasta" from the '99 demo. Did it really take so long to compile this? Or did he make three volumes and released them simultaneously when finished? And why does he stubbornly misspell Hödur as "Höndur"??? So many questions, so few answers and nobody probably cares. Well, I do so if you have more information, please share. Sound levels here are even and things flow surprisingly well, bands present are interesting enough and almost all play some variation of black/pagan metal (even A.S.W. - to my surprise) with the notable exception of Consecrated's gothic doom. A pretty neat little compilation.

Moonspell - Live in Zürich 13.10.1995

Moonspell - Live in Zürich, Switzerland 13th October 1995
1) Wolfshade (A Werewolf Masquerade)
2) Love Crimes
3) ...of Dream and Drama (Midnight Ride)
4) An Erotic Alchemy
5) Lua d'Inverno
6) Alma Mater

Yandex

Once again I'm posting a live tape the night before going to a festival and probably unsurprising, it's Moonspell '95. At least this time I have the excuse of mr. Dominik Matus requesting me to upload whatever live recordings I may have left in the vaults. So, we start with this one which I had kind of forgotten in the ready items folder. This naturally was sent by a tape trader so it is a dub of unknown generation, though the sound is fairly good. A really half-hearted cover of the cuddly wolves thrown together by a lazy blogger.

Decent sound like I said, this is a little shorter gig again, though not as short as the ones during the "Battle of the Ages" tour supporting Immortal & Morbid Angel (most I have posted are from that), this lasts a bit less than 28 minutes. It appears the person who recorded this missed a possible intro as well as the start of the first track. Not too much missing so shouldn't be a grave issue. Personally I'm quite pleased they changed the set by dropping "Vampiria" (unless they played it first and it's missing) and adding "An Erotic Alchemy" to its place. Yup, not really a lot to say as I've posted already a few of these gigs. This has a bit better than average sound so I suppose this'd be a good spot to start if you haven't dared to pick up these live recordings before. I'm off to sleep and to Jalometalli in the morning.

Ghoul - ...And Obscurity Returned on Earth demo 1998

Ghoul (ita) - ...And Obscurity Returned on Earth demo II (?)1998
1) Dying Man
2) Dark Countessa Came
3) Haunted Palace
4) Romantic Death

Mediafire / Rusfolder

Today's post is another of my random pick ups so bear with me. This is yet another user of the name Ghoul, Italian lads who play vampiric black/death metal and released at least two demo tapes (of which this is the second) and an album. I've only heard this one myself, having bought it from someone selling old tapes maybe two years ago. Which obviously means a cover scan is included. Where was that cover art stolen from, some old Call of Cthulhu booklet?

You might read between the lines from the first paragraph my lack of enthusiasm and might also think: "Vampiric black/death from an Italian band, from the late 90's... why am I still reading this?" and I wouldn't really blame you for deciding to come back another day. Those who remain, be it either from morbid curiosity, special tastes or some strange sense of loyalty will find out this is a pretty long tape, almost 27 minutes, meaning long songs. Thinking COF, are you yet? Interesting enough 'Filth aren't mentioned on their thanks list, but Ancient (Jesus Christ! and... that is), Mortuary Drape, Dimmu Borgir, Sadist & Opera IX are. I can't say I'd hear much Sadist in their sound but the others, yeah, some as more redeeming qualities than others. I was going to say I was also reminded of Hecate Enthroned when I started to listen to this but that's a bit inaccurate since it's been probably ten years since I last heard that band and don't really recall what they sound like. Never forget the video though. I seem to write whatever comes to my mind instead of actually speaking of the content. Ok, the sound is fine, main vocals bearable, female support vocals as awful as usual and it's not my goblet of wine at all. But why don't you try it, you know you want to.

Northern Darkness Records Advance - Promo 1996

Various Artists - Northern Darkness Records advance-promo (1996)
1) Godfuck 93 - Tomb Desecration XXX 192
2) Godfuck 93 - 172: Whore Remix (Heroin Control)
3) Entirety - Intro
4) Entirety - Monolith
5) Entirety - Deserts of Vast Eternity
6) Handful Of Hate - Prophecy of a New Assiah's Supremacy
7) Handful Of Hate - Undicies Ah-Qlipha
8) Love History - Intro - From Bohemia's Woods and Fields
9) Love History - Labyrinth of Love
10) Love History - Desires
11) Novgorod - Through the Seven Gates of Kur
12) Novgorod - From the Flesh He Was Created

Depositfiles / Mediafire

Looks like it's been a bit over year since I last posted a compilation tape, time to remedy that I suppose. This item here is actually probably more correctly called a sampler as it was a promotional/advance tape sent around by the Italian underground label Northern Darkness Records in 1996 for free, mostly to distros, 'zines, other labels and people who ordered stuff from them. Came with a xeroxed cover and an ordinary tape with stickers on them. Scanned the cover, not the tape itself. Side A is called "...the Northern Side" and contains advance tracks, unmixed raw versions and side B is "...the Darkness Side" and has tracks from two preceeding releases, Love History MCD and Novgorod demo.

The first two tracks are sort of industrial black metal by Godfuck 93, an Italian project featuring the Necromass vocalist at the time whose name is not mentioned on the cover but I presume it'd be Charles Blasphemy. The music on these two tracks is still mostly pretty straight black metal with drum machine, samples, effects and such. Though the second track has some almost danceable beats, guess later Samael meets Aborym wouldn't be a too far-fetched comparison. I remember being quite intrigued and even excited by this back then. Entirety are also Italian and have a bit cleaner sound than Gf93... for their intro, once the metal kicks in it gets rather muddled and strangely quiet compared to the nice intro bit. Well, like the cover says material on this side of the tape is raw recordings without editing & mastering. Music is melodeath with ample background synths. Think about the Swedes in the 90's. Last on this side of the tape is Handful of Hate, Italian black metal band who are still active and released an album this year. Much clearer sound here, quite fast black metal with typically Italian occult touch and some tempo changes and atmospheric breaks, fortunately. The line-up for the album credits a J.M. for drums but this sounds like a machine here. Might be the sound. This sounds better than I remembered, I guess I have to take another listen to their albums. And that demo.

Side B opens with the intro of the only non-Italian group here, Czech Rep's Love History who play atmospheric death/doom with dramatic touches and different kinds of vocals; whispers, growls, spoken bits and so on. You're thinking My Dying Bride, aren't you? Well, fortunately they've got something of their own going there too, some slightly folksy, Slavonic-sounding (though I suppose these should be Bohemian) melodies for example which sound very nice, reminding me of Gods Tower. The cover doesn't mention their second "proper" track at all, probably due oversight. It's an instrumental piece with almost jazzy parts, showing again another side. They also sound better than I remembered, I recall preferring their country mates Dissolving of Prodigy as if I couldn't listen to both. That's a second band here I need to listen more to. Last is, wait for it, Italian Novgorod with two long tracks taken from their demo. Synth-driven gothic sort of black(ish) metal with a slightly low sound. Not very impressed with them, the songs are a bit too long for their own good and some of the transitions and playing sound very awkward and not in the good way. Annoying as there are some pretty cool moments too. The total duration of the sampler is a bit over 47 minutes and I've written enough about it, I'm hungry.

Asmodeus - A Night Serenade... demo 1997

Asmodeus (swe) - A Night Serenade... demo III 1997
1) Part One: The Vision
2) Part Two: The Dreams
3) Outro

RGhost / Yandex

Here is another post featuring a band with an overused name. Metal Archives lists 13 bands named Asmodeus and there's a bunch of non-metal ones too I bet (too lazy to check). Personally I always think first of the Norwegian one, or the Icelandic, but let's concentrate on this, one of the three from Sweden and playing, at least on this demo, sort of melodic death metal with some gothic touches. I don't know why I had it labeled as melodic black/death, there's nothing black metal here. Well, their logo is kinda black metallish (see below).

Two tracks and an outro (which was not mentioned on the cover but I decided to have separate anyways) for a bit less than twelve minutes. The first song is more mellow and gothy with so-and-so clean vocals, the second track being more into my taste, melodic but slightly harder if you know what I mean. In non-Freudian sense. It makes me curious to hear their other demo(s) - I got this back in the day from a tape trader who informed me it was demo III, the cover included makes no reference to other releases or even the year of this release but I trust his word. The outro is nice, but overall I'm left feeling I like their logo more than their music. But enough of my confused ravings, give the demo a listen if melodic death metal interests you.

Legenda - Chronicles Chapter I promo 1996

Legenda (fin) - Chronicles Chapter I promo 1996
1) All Flesh Is Grass
2) Kings
3) Wolves Honey Wolves
4) All Love Is Gone
5) Winter Night

Depositfiles / Rusfolder

Let's continue a bit longer with the more mellow Finnish metal streak, ok? No? Too bad, I'm doing this anyways. It's quite a natural transition from gothic metal to dark metal don't you agree? Here's the only demo recording, a promo tape, from Finland's Legenda, probably best known as Kimmo Luttinen's band after Impaled Nazarene. He also did Isänmaa in the same year, I recommend checking out the re-release by Primitive Reaction, it shreds various things! Back to this project, this was a two-man unit, the second guy being Mika/Niko (? - used both names, or actually two different guys?) Karppinen from Bloodride (and ex-Maple Cross) who plays the bass while Kimmo handles the rest. Ripped from a dub I unfortunately have no cover this and looks like no-one else has either. If you do, send me scan please.

If you have heard the Legenda debut album you'll know all these songs as they also appear there. Naturally the demo versions sound less polished and have differences in the intro parts, less keyboards and effects etc. A decent demo sound and the dub doesn't seem too much raped, but obviously it sounds muffled, muddled and murky if compared to the album side by side. I guess something more than "it's dark metal" should be said about the music, it's kind of groovy, blackish (I hate that word/term almost as much as promodemo and its variations!) metal, self-described as: A finnish band which plays cold blackish metal with a "rocky" feeling. Basically you could say it's Impaled Nazarene's "Blood Is Thicker..." extended to a band concept. That's a bit unfair as not all the tracks sound that much same but gives you an idea I guess. Some gothic touches are included, but not in the voice department, harsh vocals all the way, which is preferable to sloppy singing plus he does them quite well. It's not bad, there are days when I listen to this and the albums quite contently and then there are days I can't stand them. If you enjoy gothic/melodic/rockin' dark metal I guess you should give this a try.

Ancient Drive - Orgasmic Adores promo 1999

Ancient Drive - Orgasmic Adores promo 1999
1) Entering... Dark Ecstasy
2) Carnal Perverse
3) Blood-Red Claws
4) Orgasmic Adores

Yandex / RGhost

Without delay let us post the second Ancient Drive recording I have, the promo I was referring to in the previous post. See that one for further background information, I'm not that keen on repeating myself today. Cover scans are included.

Comparing to the previous demo recording (I haven't heard the 1997 demo nor the only full-lenght) the sound is a little thinner, with keyboards more prominent and guitars less emphasized, generally sounding less heavy and... uh, more gothic? It's still more metal than goth rock if you felt threatened by that description. Recorded at Studio Perkele the sound is certainly good, just different from the demo. I'm not really certain which one I prefer, this might be more suitable for the gothic elements. More songs, though the first is an intro, but a bit shorter overall at 14+ minutes. I don't feel like writing right now so I'll just settle this saying it's better than the previous one and listen for yourselves!

Ancient Drive - Romantic Funeral demo 1998

Ancient Drive - Romantic Funeral demo 1998
1) Mourning Tears
2) Romantic Funeral
3) Death Embrace Her

Mediafire / Depositfiles

I think it's time to post metal again but don't get too excited. Knowing the deep love some of my readers have for gothic metal I just had to post this item now. Here is the first (?) demo by Ancient Drive from Kuopio, best known for later spawning Turmion Kätilöt from its ruins. I know there's at least one rip circulating the internets but I think this might be better, ripped from a CDr on which I had both the 1999 Orgasmic Adores promo and this as bonus. Yes, I'll post that later. No, I don't remember anymore where I got it, could've been from a band member on various drunken adventures back then or could've been from one of my comrades. Sadly I don't have a cover for this as it was burned as bonus on the promo, I don't even know if it was originally released on CDr or tape or both. However, Metal Archives supplied us with a tiny... no smaller, really really tiny cover image that looks like it would be from a CD.

That's all really interesting and exciting but it might be about time to get to the content so here we go: just a bit over 17 minutes of gothic metal, pretty uptempo but heavy enough not to be completely pop/girly listening. Main voice is very typical gothy singing, better than average demo band and doesn't annoy the hell out of me from the start. He does some aggressive growls too which work well enough. The second track has more different tempos than the pretty straight-forward first one yet it doesn't work as well for me while the third one gets all too soft and girly and the vocals also seem to get less appealing by the track. I suppose this still remains better than average gothic metal demo of the era, the first song being my favourite here and the rest not so much. Ok, 1/3 isn't usually better than average I know. Give it a listen if you have even a passing interest in this sort of music. If you don't, listen to it anyways and amuse me with your suffering.

Deface - Tears demo 1995

Deface (spa) - Tears advance tape for demo 1995
1) Absorbed by Homesickness
2) Unforgettable Moments
3) Inextricable Memories (Part I)
4) The Field of Glory
5) Inextricable Memories (Part II)

Mediafire

Time to post another a bit older contribution. I'm not 100% if I simply forgot this one to sit in my download folder or had Mikael aka Vaalkoth posted this in their short-lived blog, whatever the reason may be it was left there for quite some time. Anyways, this is an advance version of Spanish death metal band Deface's only (?) demo from 1995 which Mikael had gotten from them and ripped and sent to yours truly along with some other items. Includes a pic of the cover, which is unfortunately not a scan but a digicam pic. You can see what needs to be seen on that too. Thanks for sharing!

Mikael's rip had tracks 3 & 4 together, I separated them. Otherwise I haven't meddled with his work here, it's a little lower bitrate than I usually go for (CBR 160) but it sounds ok. Note that of the 5 tracks here, roughly 15 minutes of music, only tracks 2 and 4 might be what we call "proper" tracks as the others are intro and interlude sort of pieces. The sound is kinda weak, or more like unpowerful and the music is not certainly the average sort of death metal you might've expected from Spain early 90's - it's kind of complicated mix of technical death metal with gothic influences, rather than death/doom which might seem more likely when you look at the titles here. In a way the sound supports their complex, serpentine meanderings as a heavier, cavernous or a dirty, muddled production would make them a complete mess. Vocals are death growls, gothic moans and assorted less used sounds. I don't like this. Well, the instrumental interludes are ok. Other than that the main dish is too complex and twisty for my palate, most of the time it just makes me sort of annoyed. But you have to note I'm not into Ved Buens Ende and the like either so you might find this fascinating and actually enjoy it. After all, some people enjoy eating things which make me grimace and spit them into a napkin for stealth disposal at first opportunity... I better quit now and prepare some food.

Cradle Of Filth - Live in Garatejo 10.11.1994

Cradle Of Filth - Live in Garatejo, Portugal 10th November 1994
1) Darkness Our Bride (Jugular Wedding)
2) To Eve the Art of Witchcraft
3) Nocturnal Supremacy
4) In Dusk and Her Embrace
5) The Principle of Evil Made Flesh

Narod / Deposit

I saw COF live again the night before Black Flames of Blasphemy III, though I mainly went to see Rotting Christ (and to check out God Seed) and sort of inspired by that I decided to finally upload this old live that I had forgotten in some dank, musty corner of my hard drive. Dubbed by one of my tape traders long ago, naturally no cover existed as it was just another audience recording. However, I made one out of a picture by Aly Fell which I came across looking for an image with a vampire chick. The artist has some pretty neat images so go have a look.

This is a short gig, just over 23 minutes, and I'm not sure if it is incomplete or not as another live from the same tour (?) I have is also just over 23 minutes and has also intro and four songs. I suppose they were a warm-up for some bigger name and given a very short slot. Notice that Dusk... was still in this early stage called In Dusk and Her Embrace (...or it might've been a mistake by my trader but I'm sticking to it). Another "new" track Nocturnal Supremacy has also been featured on the other old 'Filth releases posted on the blog and I still haven't compared the versions side-to-side. Then to the inevitable: this is an old audience recording so the sound, as expected, is not very good. It is clear and audible enough, at least if you're used to the quality of bootlegs, but somewhat uneven and there seem to be some glitches to it too, not sure but seems like it cuts a little on To Eve... It certainly is better than I remembered and surprisingly balanced as nothing's overpowering, the guitars are once again too low but you can still hear 'em and Dani's vocals sound actually pretty good here and are on reasonable level. Recommendable if you like old COF and are a seasoned listener of lo-fi recordings and live bootlegs.

Let Me Dream - The Maze demo 1996

Let Me Dream - The Maze demo 1996
1) The Maze
2) My Doom
3) The Spear in Your Hand
4) Wolfborn

Mediafire / Narod

Time to post something else than black metal for change. This one is still metal, though narrowly. Let Me Dream, previously known as Congestion, played gothic doom metal, though I guess around the time of this demo the sound went much further into the gothic territory and very little doom metal remains. I remember I used to like one of the tracks on Congestion's "Bed of the Ancient River" demo quite a bit and was to some degree into gothic so I was interested in this band as well. Now that I listen to this demo I can't say I'd be that enthusiastic. Ripped from an original copy, cover scan enclosed.

Like I sort of established above, this is musically more like gothic rock forced into metal mould than gothic doom or other gothic ___ metal combinations. The demo has a pretty good sound while sounding kind of weak. It's clear, with vocals on top and everything else audible but would suit pure gothic rock much better than metallic version. The main vocal is a clean voice, familiar from what they already used as Congestion and, of course, it's bordering on cringe-worthy and listenable. Sort of mix between Fenriz on "Vinterskugge" and the guy from The Equinox ov the Gods. TEotG would be a comparable band from the ones posted on this blog except that they're much heavier. The vocalist uses also a half growl half croak in addition to the clean singing which is okay but sounds first kind of odd over the goth. Repeat listens actually make me appreciate it on the 2nd song.

It's a little hard to say in the end what I think about this, at first I hated it, then it sounded kind of ok, then again utterly horrible, then this bit was great and this ok... well, you get the picture. My comrade SuuretMuinaiset absolutely hates gothic metal so I assume he won't stand this either but the rest of you feel free to give it a try if you're not allergic to genres and artists mentioned. Oh I suppose I should mention Let Me Dream has also a 1999 EP also called "The Maze" but with different content.