Sabbathan - Satanic's Ritual's demo '93

Sabbathan - Satanic's Ritual's demo I 1993
1) Basilicam Dei Luciferi
2) Aker Leze
3) Egolatria in Pentagram

Mediafire / Zippyshare

I wanted to do a synth-thingy today and chose to finally go for it and post this sending by brother Baldemar (thanks for the rip!) despite being somewhat uncertain of it. Remember Masthema Sancia's Sabbathan featured earlier here? Well, I got this rip here from B. without a tracklisting and vague description of demo '95 but that didn't seem to fit so I made an educated guess this is actually the first demo "Satanic's Ritual's" and '93 changing to '95 a typical tape trading mishap. The first demo and "The Fury of the Storms" which I already had were the only releases listed with three songs so based on that and the sound I'm semi-confident my guess is right. Obviously if you know better (and have proof) be kind and correct me. Cover image borrowed from the Archives once again.

Comparing to the promo track these have a much more obscure sound, with the keyboard being more prominent and vocals almost completely buried below them, a whisper most of the time instead of the clear voice on the promo or the black metal rasp of "The Fury" tape. The sound is sort of crude with the keys sounding almost piercing from time to time, giving a sort of uneasy feeling to the listener which should be a positive factor for this kind of music. I'm actually getting more of a cold space ambient vibe rather than ritual musick from this. "Anti-cosmic dark ambient" to counter Apeiron's "cosmic light ambient"?  Or maybe some kind of  Lovecraftian visions? No, I'm not on drugs. Whatever, nothing Aztecy here either, purely Satanic ritual black ambient. If you have the last tape "Lust & Pain" please get in touch.

Souls Crematorium - Pre-Demo '93

Souls Crematorium - Pre-demo '93
1) Before the Life Over
2) After Day
3) Terror Diminish
4) Impossible Rehabilitation
5) Until the End of Life

Mega / Zippyshare

One more from an exotic locale (from my point of view) and an obscure death metal offering for change, this was sent by brother Baldemar and it is the only release by Mexico's Souls Crematorium. "Pre-demo" suggests this wasn't probably considered a proper demo but rather an advance version or a promo perhaps. Whatever the intention was, this came to be their only demo (unless they recorded something before this that B. did not mention) as the band split up quite soon after its release, Edgar Garcia and Guillermo Garfias teaming up with Antimo Buonnano to form Disgorge. The guitarist Samuel Olvera joined later another local band Piraña, also still active. Besides Disgorge, Edgar is a member of Putrefact and Hell Execution plus has played or plays live with among others Thornspawn, Funereal Moon, Hacavitz, Morbosidad and Impiety. Baldemar included a scan of the xeroxed cover as well, thanks again for your work!

Music is death metal, of the slightly slower variety with long-ish tracks that have enough variation within to remain interesting while still managing to avoid overtly complex wankery. Second song is a shorter instrumental one which further spices things up. The sound is pretty rough, probably recorded at their rehearsal place. Certain elements get somewhat messy but you should still be able to distinguish all instruments and I think it has more character with an unpolished sound like this. That background research/exposition on the first paragraph sort of wore me out so I'm not going to drop names as heavily here, not to mention my very limited death metal expertise preventing more interesting comparisons. Let's just say that if you like rough old death metal and vintage South American sounds you might dig this.

Alpheratz - Egregorian Oath demo 1996

Alpheratz - Egregorian Oath demo 1996
1) In the Beggining
2) All Was Everlasting
3) To Feel the Inossence Passion
4) Stillness
5) Septentrional Abiss
6) Infinity Sad
7) A Gloomy Remembrance

Yandex / Zippyshare

I thought we might chill today with another contribution, this is Alpheratz who hail from Mexico and released this one demo tape on Sempiternal Sadness before fading away again. Thanks to the contributor, who unfortunately did not have covers to send but I did borrow serviceable ones from Metal Archives and the Demo Archives II. Alpheratz played "black funeral music" (not sure if actual label description) or "ocult & black ambients" (their own words) which would be a mixture of dark ambient and darkwave sounds with slow, atmospheric black metal. A bit like proto-dsbm actually.

This tape was somehow familiar to me before receiving the contribution but I'm no longer sure where I recall this from, some old 'zine most likely or perhaps flyers. I'm positive I hadn't heard it before, though. It's pretty long, more than half an hour, and has a decent enough sound, if a bit sparse. That gives it a nice roomy, almost airy feel though. The first short song serves as an intro and is followed by a longer track that is characterized by a plodding tempo, buzzing distorted guitars, spaced-out keyboards and viciously grating, raspy black metal main vocals. Some clean vocals provide support but are enough in the background as not to disturb me. Next track which also is the longest adds what I'm quite sure are female session vocals or perhaps the guy has a really wide range? It's also slightly more upbeat and has sort of wavey feel to it. I like the buzzing, wavering guitars which sound like they might collapse any moment. The somewhat abrupt switches also amuse me here more than annoy. Not to mention the trippy synths and obvious drum machine. "Stillness" seems to combine animal husbandry with quasi-gregorian moods which is pretty goofy, as is the later part of the song too. "Infinity Sad" features some crazy keyboard sounds that are practically random. There is certain clumsy charm to this again and I find myself enjoying the recording, possibly more than I actually should. It does feel a little longer than necessary, I admit. Recommended to the friends of the curious and exotic.

Hiborym - Abakua: Pacta Conventa Daemonorum demo 1995

Hiborym - Abakua: Pacta Conventa Daemonorum demo 1995
1) Lady Masthema
2) Coronum Patrem Noctis
3) Sigilium Diaboli

Mega

Brother Baldemar's contributions continue with another Mexican black metal relic continuing where these posts left off. Thank you for the rip! Based on some old interviews I always thought of Hiborym as the main band of Masthema Sancia & co and despite remaining somewhat obscure and underground it has also stayed active the longest, releasing a demo as "recently" as 2010. I would really like to get my hands on the recordings released between 1995 and 2010 so if you have them, get in touch. I'd also really like a cover for this so you know what to do. And (possible) older recordings interest me as well.

What is here then? Three tracks might not look like much but this still runs over 20 minutes as these are all relavitely long tracks, which might be a slight surprise. If you were expecting fast and blistering black/death/war metal assault, think again. This is mostly slow to midpaced raw, melancholic and atmospheric black metal. Rather doomy even. It's quite obviously a rehearsal recording but the sound quality is good enough and actually very pleasant to my ears, suits this much better than a fancy polished 48 track studio recording! Now that I think of it, this has a lot in common with the Iadanamada rehearsal I earlier posted. I like this and am very fascinated with this circle of bands in general so be sure to let me know if you have more from Hiborym or any of the related projects!

Sabbathan - Promo '94

Sabbathan - Promo '94
1) Thousand Luciferes

Yandex

Mesoamerican madness continues with more Mexican mayhem by Masthema Sancia 666, this time a contribution by another person and slightly different sort of stuff as we delve into depths with his solo project Sabbathan. You might see Sabbathan referred to as black metal but that'd be the case with the later stuff, or parts of it to be accurate. The older tapes, including this one, are synths and voice sort of ritual music/black ambient - well, I'm sure you get the idea. Metal Archives refers to this as "Thousand Luciferes" promo '95 but according to my contributor and the vague recollections I have (= reliable, accurate info) of some interview or article or something in a 'zine this is '94 promo. No cover exists so I just used the logo.

I don't really see how Sabbathan were "Aztec black metal" in any point as somewhere was mentioned since both this, '93 demo and "The Fury of the Storms" are clearly Satanic content. Probably a mix-up with the themes of the other related projects... though as we saw from the Iadanamada rehearsal I posted at least the old material there was Satanic, pure black metal as well. Yes, but back to this recording, what we have here is a single song with organ-type keys, clear voice proclaming incantations slightly drowned out by the music and... well, that's pretty much it. It's a simple, somewhat ritualistic piece. As a standalone track it's not really something to write home about, I suppose it serves better listened to as an interlude between other related pieces, or perhaps as an intro to a Lords of the Tyrants compilation or such (subtle hint there!)? Recommended still to people interested in this circle or similar material in general. I really want to hear the first Sabbathan demo so get in touch if you have it! Well, the last one too.

Iadanamada - Thy Honor of Triumph (reh '94)

Iadanamada - Thy Honor of Triumph rehearsal 1994
1) Intro
2) Dark Princess
3) My Black Evocation
4) Proclamation from Satan

Mediafire / RGhost

As promised, here's something more uncommon and keeping with the travel plan we move south of border (this time from the US viewpoint) to Mexico and another contribution from brother Baldemar, many thanks for this one! "This one" being Monterrey's Iadanamada, one of the bands by Masthema Sancia, known from Sabbathan and Hiborym as well as some other projects. This is apparently the second release with this project, if the Metal Archives note about a demo from '93 is correct, and at least two more tapes should exist: '95 promo titled "Metzli" and the '97 demo "Evocation" listed in the Archives. Though I wonder if these are the same release? Entirely possible they're not, they might've just re-recorded two old tracks. Whatever the case might be, I'm looking for the rest of their material so get in touch if you got any.

This is a rehearsal tape and as it wasn't ripped from an original or direct dub either you might feel very cautious. Fret not, the sound quality is decent enough even if it is closer to poor than great, you're reading this blog after all so you're most likely not that sensitive about it. It's a bit on the quiet side even if I increased the volume a tiny bit. The intro sounds very much like a Dead Can Dance track and probably is one, I just don't recognize it right away and am too lazy to research. Their own material is black metal, at this point still dealing with quite traditional topics, judging from the song titles and treads mostly at steady mid-tempo. It's more melancholic, moody and monotonous than bestial or warlike, closer to Burzum than Sarcófago. Rather simple, somewhat repetitive but I take pleasure in this sort of primitive stuff. Don't pick this up expecting sophisticated black art, pretentious avant-wankery or fashionably boneheaded retrogasm.

Funereal Moon - Silent Night of Full Moon Shine demo 1995

Funereal Moon - Silent Night of Full Moon Shine demo II 1995
1) Pact with Lucifer (Intro)
2) Somber Sunrise
3) Celestial Lucifer
4) Christ in Agony
5) Temple of Sodom
6) Dance with Vampire
7) In a Fullmoon Night
8) Black Goat Church
9) Dying in My Empty Life
10) Nocturnal
11) Centuries of Loneliness
12) Shadows of Michel Angelo
13) At the Gates of Creation
14) Ritual of Transmutation
15) Were Wolf Nightmare
16) Black Roses in My Funeral
17) Funereal Moon

Depositfiles

We keep to the American continents, moving northward to Mexico and here is the second demo of the infamous Funereal Moon. 17 tracks for almost an hour, they combine dark, blackened ambient and ritualistic sounds to ugly black metal parts for a really hideous result. Certainly not recommendable for everyone, but the poisonous atmospheres will please those who enjoy material like LLN's ambient projects, Abruptum and similar bands, or maybe just plain old grim low-fi black metal.

Ripped from an original tape I got from one distro or another so the sound quality is good and a scan of the cover is included. This was the second version of the demo, released by Dark Silence. I guess the division of the styles here might be about 2/3 ambient material and 1/3 of black metal. The metal tracks tend to be quite short and simple bursts, like the 2½ minute "Celestial Lucifer" which works better than you might believe as the ambient pieces are where the darkness really resides in. I've found myself enjoying the twisted journey, even if wasn't very pleased with the release when I originally got it 1996. Give it a try and decide for yourself!