Blood Chalice - Journey Through Shadowlands demo '00

Blood Chalice - Journey Through Shadowlands demo 2000
1) I Am... The Adversarial One
2) In Hunt for the Blood of Jesus (Christ Hunting)
3) Mesmerizing Zephyr, Tantalising Death
4) The Dagger and the Chalice of Blood

Mediafire / 4shared

Here's something more from the exotic side of the globe and probably one of the worst sounding demos/rips featured on the blog. Blood Chalice of Singapore, who seem to be obscure enough to not be on Metal Archives (though I trust they soon will be) with their 2000 demo which may or may not be also their only one, sent by comrade Nefarious back with other items already long ago. Thanks again for contributing! A cover scan is enclosed.

Four songs but they are quite long so the playing time is a challenging 25+ minutes. Challenge mostly due the unpleasant sound I already mentioned on the first paragraph. How bad can it be then, to irk me? Well, you see the main issue is the weird bass drum sound much of the time burying almost everything else underneath. Like suffocating someone with a pillow while they try to recite The Oath, you can make out what it's supposed to be but it's kinda hard to enjoy it. Or like poor Shouta-kun sleeping in the 8th episode of Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon ...now I'm starting to digress so far I won't be able to find my way back if I'm not careful. Let's see, it's worst in the very beginning (of course, the all-important first impression!) but gets less drastic eventually and with enough exposure I guess one would get used to it. A pity since the music isn't that bad by itself, kind of raw and old schoolish black metal. I'm not really associating it with their own slogan of cold nihilistic ultra black metal, the warm, asphyxiating mass of wobbly bass marshmallow hell contradicts coldness pretty severely. If anyone can provide me with a better rip (assuming the problem is with that) I'd be very happy to receive it, no matter the bitrate. For sound extremists, seekers of endless obscurity and the purely perverted. Feel free to enjoy if you can, I won't judge!

Realm - Dark Winds of Asuras demo '97

Realm - Dark Winds of Asuras demo I August 1997
1) Fallen Skies
2) Blood of the Imperial Night
3) Kingdom of Nightfall
4) Master of Centuries Black

4shared / Yandex

I thought I'd start August off with something slightly more exotic again and I must say I love that yellow cover! So sunny and summerlike feeling! Maybe it's quite inappropriate for a black metal band's demo, but one must admit it is very striking. And it's not even any sort of druggy wanna-be-industrial sort of thing, no, this is Realm of Singapore who play pure & honest black metal. This was again contributed by our easternmost cohort Morbid Chanter, rip and cover. It seems like this was the only demo released under this monicker as the mastermind of the project Night changed the name to Netherealm quite soon after the demo was released and the recording line-up fell apart.

Pretty good, loud sound. Not very clear perhaps, but it's not a negative thing. Pound-pound-pounding drums that sound almost tribal at times, grating and ever-so-slightly buzzy guitar, bass very much audible but firmly on the sidelines and good, raw vocals almost "properly" sung and supported by slightly dirtier, lewd screams and raspy howls plus a smattering of clean (spoken) session vocals on the final song. Acoustic passages and atmospheric breaks mix things up. This is one of those pieces that are somewhat more metal than black while remaining black metal if you know what I mean? And they manage it naturally, not sounding retro-this or old school-that for the sake of hooking up with Osmose or who had you back then releasing all that neothrash. It's quite long for a four song demo, over 25 minutes, much of which is taken by the epic last track. I like this, more than the split made with Austrian Seraph that followed, as Netherealm. That one suffered from the lack of a full line-up I believe. Recommended even if you can't stand yellow!

Behemoth - Remembrance of the Crucification demo 1992

Behemoth (sgp) - Remembrance of the Crucification demo 1992
1) Remembrance of the Crucification
2) Evil Lord
3) Cursed of God
4) Lord of All Gods
5) Doomsday
6) Church of Ghouls
7) Bastard Christ
8) Bleed Upon the Altars

Depositfiles / Yandex

One more from Asia and going back a bit, this is another Singapore kvlt with a familiar name, Behemoth, with their only(?) demo from 1992. Like several of their countrymen and Malaysian neighbours, Behemoth played pretty raw sort of black/death metal possibly and probably influenced by the likes of Sarcófago, old Mayhem, Hellhammer, Samael, Blasphemy, Beherit etc as well as their senpais Abhorer, Sexfago and Nuctemeron. That was a lot of names. Let's drop another, this was send by comrade Nefarious, thank you! He sent the cover scans as well, I suppose the dirty greyish image on M.A. is a xerox of the original red we have here. Or they might have run out of red paper at some point?

Eight tracks makes this look like it could be a full album but they're all quite short so the total run time is just short of 23 minutes. Almost exactly the opposite of the second Blood Angel demo that has four tracks for almost 47 minutes (you should check that band out too)! The title track is an intro, Nefarious had left it and the second track together as they blend into each other in a tricky manner but I saw fit to meddle again and separated them. Quite good sound, loud and clear enough, though it wavers a little which might be due tape wear. I like the crispy yet heavy sound the guitar has. Songs are mostly fast but have breaks and changes enough to keep them from being too linear and boring yet still remain simple and fluent enough for me to enjoy. Vocals are brutal growls and barks, executed with enough ill will to not sound monotonous. Wild solos flutter all around the park, bass can be heard and some mistakes are easy to spot but that's extra charm points for me. Great stuff, wonder when NWN! or someone is going to rerelease this. Recommended!

Neohellist: True Black Metal Compilation (2000)

Various Artists - Neohellist: True Black Metal Compilation tape (2000)
1) Crusade - Camella's Glare Upon Candleflames
2) Impiety - Sodomythical Frostgoats
3) Santhet - The True Witcraft
4) Cryogenic - Fimbulwinter
5) Armageddon Holocaust - The Seven Churches of Apokalypse
6) Unseen Darkness - Glorifications on My Sign Existance
7) Autumn Verses - The October Land
8) Perish - Burning Soul With a Winter Shadow
9) Vaakevandring - Some Day
10) Borgomil - Inferno Resonance
11) Behemoth - Satan's Sword (I Have Become)
12) Neurotic of Gods - Terbuai Mimpi Di Laut Duka
13) Kekal - Embrace the Dead
14) Mortality - Abandonment Unto Our Lady the Infinite
15) Gorbalrog - Sternengriff
16) Mystical - Evil Spells
17) Moonsorrow - Luopion veri
18) Hellgods - Ahl Sohn Bar
19) Maelstrom - The Darkest Winter

Depositfiles / Mega

This is the last of the compilation tapes Henri Sorvali sent me amongst the legion of other rips, well that's not entirely accurate as he sent also two of the Beverina compilations (#2 and #3) which I'd already ripped and posted. I'll still need to compare the quality of our rips to see if I'll replace mine with his rips. But back to today's item, this is a "true black metal" compilation made by Extreme Souls Production from Indonesia. I find it hard to take them and their "true" and "pure" black metal seriously when they start their thanks list hailing "GOD" but perhaps I'm missing something here. Let's not tarry on the label's possible poser status, it should not affect the content of the compilation nor is it the bands' fault.

A good thing about this compilation is that it has a large selection of Indonesian bands which I'm not very well familiar with, making it more interesting than a standard selection of Nordic bands with a token local band tossed in seen too often. The first band Crusade starts with a rather COF-esque track of quasi-symphonic black metal which isn't terrible but not very interesting either. Fortunately the next two bands keep it more real and especially another local Santhet manages to sound quite raw. The compilation goes on alternating between differing takes on black(-ened) metal and manages to maintain a somewhat uniform sound volume- and qualitywise while having enough variation to not get too dull. No major lapses, except maybe Borgomil who sound like their track was recorded in a can, not that it would be an issue. The covers have some errors, Hellgods is spelled "Hell Gods" and Moonsorrow is listed with wrong track. Overall better than average compilation tape, unless you for some reason hate Indonesian bands, and recommendable.

Debauchery - Spirit of Barbuelis demo 1992

Debauchery - Spirit of Barbuelis demo 1992
1) Rites of Profanity
2) Bestial Desecration Through Holy Prayers
3) The Unholy Ground of Darkened Evil
4) Outro

Yandex / Zippy

Ok, for this one I have cover scans! Here's Debauchery from Singapore, not to be confused with the currently active German band whose main selling point is boobs or with the dozen or so others, and their 1992 demo which was one of the items brother A.S. dubbed me some months ago. He also sent xerox of the covers, thanks for all again.

Debauchery started as Extremist back in '87, playing probably thrash, renamed to Morbid Death around '88 and again to Cemetary in '89. Then in 1991 they switched from death metal to black metal and '93 changed name again to Eibon and added more atmospheric stuff to their sound. Long history but can't help thinking it seems a little trendy. Oh well, so were our celebrated Norwegian overlords and the third track here has lyrics by Tony "It" Särkkä (even though it's instrumental?!?), they're all good. Let's concentrate on the music instead, it's pretty raw black metal with clearly audible instrumentation and better than average performance. The massively echoing vocals are good as well and I don't really have much to complain. Oh yeah, no drummer but the machine isn't very intrusive, it's the element most buried actually. The additional vocals sound occasionally a bit silly but in general they add up to the feeling of possession. Recommended.

Goat Of The Harvest Compilation Vol.4

Various Artists - Goat of the Harvest Compilation vol.4: Autumn/Winter 1997/98 c.e.
1) Rood - An Ode to the Mighty North (Intro)
2) Utgard - Forgotten Heathen Woods
3) Judas Iscariot - From His Woven Darkness Above
4) Inner Hell - Misanthromaniac
5) Rare Form - Fata Morgana
6) Keep Of Kalessin - Skygger av Sorg I
7) Flauros - The Legend of Werewolf
8) Inhumate - Piece of Meat
9) Anwyl - Realm of Blasphemy
10) Anno Daemonicus - Chaos Overshadows the Valkyrian Castle
11) Bethel - Aye Inferno... / Wandering in the Lands of Dark and Frost
12) Helgrindr - A Raven... Left to Christ
13) Nomicon - Down Below
14) Deathfog - Sailing to the Great North Seas
15) Bastardized - Purest of Innocence
16) Ghoul Vault - Hypnotic Way
17) Funeral Rites - Moonlight December
18) Malkuth - Além dos Jardins Nosferáticos
19) Pagan Funeral - A Journey Through Carpathia

Reuploaded

I wrote I'd post more compilations. Well, here's another compilation tape, this one is from the USA and came with the 4th issue of the 'zine of same name, Goat Of The Harvest, which I probably will scan later as soon as I remember where I put it. Until then, we have the contents of the cassette here. The covers of course were not very informative as the 'zine had most of the info on these bands within and actually interviewed most of them, so until I manage to dig it up from somewhere I've not too much to tell about them. Well, it did have tracklisting and contact addresses so that's really what you expect from a compilation.

The line-up is international, with bands from the US, Finland, Japan, Brasil and Norway to mention few. Styles range from black metal to death metal to synth-based stuff and bands from the well-known (Judas Iscariot) to not-so-well-known (Funeral Rites) to totally obscure (Pagan Funeral). I probably should mention the first artist "Rood" is the guy who made the 'zine & compilation. As the cassette compilations were back then, the sound levels tend to shift track to track, often quite much. I didn't bother too much with this, just adjusted a few of the most extreme bits. Sounds more authentic and so on. That's all for now, give it a try if you're into black & death metal.