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.

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.

Freezing Flames #3

Freezing Flames fanzine, issue 3 (July 1998)
Interviews:
Division 187
Nightsky Bequest
Siebenbürgen
Forsth
Acheron
Infernal Mäjesty
Castrum
Forgotten Silence
In The Nursery
Warhead Records
Benighted Leams
Fleurety
Enchanted
Burzum
A View Into The Abyss 'zine
Withering Surface
Canvasser
Emanzipation Productions
Terrae Sole Calentes
+ article: Baldr's Death, reviews, ads

Reuploaded - 2022

I thought this would be a good time to post another 'zine and looks like this is my first Hungarian item posted here. Freezing Flames was an underground fanzine which made at least four issues if I'm not mistaken and this third one I scanned is the only one I've seen so I obviously can't make much comparisons, can I? The oddly coloured cover and stuff under text look of the inside pages is initially a turn off but fortunately the 'zine is more interesting to read than the first look might indicate. Made by three people of which Zsolt Pfalzgráf seems to be the main editor while Emese Tátrai and Lázló Kaposvári come off more as contributors, even though the effort is spread almost evenly among them. Most of the bands featured were quite underground, the exceptions should be pretty easy to spot from the list. I'm not really fond of the various "other" interviews 'zines feature, from other editors to distributions to labels, well the last ones might be more interesting like the Warhead Records one here. Reviews feature the usual albums, demos and 'zines and an Emperor gig report written by István Vass of Nebron. The 'zine reviews section was helpful in reminding me of which ones I'd like to see so I guess I need to update the request section. Overall the reviews are not very critical but at least you usually get the idea of what sort of music the band plays, unlike say the notoriously bad reviews in SFP. All said, I seem to be left with a positive impression of the 'zine even though I definitely don't agree with the editor's idea that it'd be preferable for all 'zines to feature background images. Read for yourself and let me know if you have their other issues, would be interesting to see them too.