Sanatorium - Necrologue demo '98

Sanatorium - Necrologue demo III 1998
1) Necrologue Written in Forest
2) Bloody Wounds
3) Desolated Areas of the Forgotten Pain
4) Cemetery of Memories
5) Rivers of the Black Sun
6) Č. Č. K. Č. Č

 Zippyshare / 4shared

Death metal for change. Ok, today's item is not really that exciting as there have been rips of it available online since people started digitizing tapes I guess, but I still decided to upload mine as it came out pretty okay and I had bothered to make it in the first place! Not really purposefully though, this third tape recording of the Slovakian death metal band Sanatorium was the second item on a tape I was ripping in ...late '13 apparently! You can also pick up a copy quite cheaply on Discogs or somewhere and if you do, scan the covers for me.

Right, enough of your piteous attempts at justifying today's post, just get on with the program. As said, third release of Sanatorium and last before their debut album which was also the last in their old style of... ugh I hate trying to subcategorize death metal with my poor grasp of its nuances, well someone said thrash/grind mixture with touches of black/death metal so let's go with that! This incarnation of Sanatorium was notable for the atmospheric parts and melodic bits amidst all the technical wankery prowess and that stop-and-go zigzag stuff... breaks.. whatever as well as the lyrics being more on the if not poetic at least introspective and gloomy vein. On the second album and the subsequent ones, all released post-millennium, they went full-retard gore-soaked juvenile misogynic dumb brutal death metal which as you might guess I do not think very highly of. Not that I'd actually heard anything after "Internal Womb Cannibalism" but I possess just enough mental agility to at least leap very nimbly into conclusions. I must admit the indecipherable sewer gurgle vocals are amusing in scarce doses, now that I revisit IWC but it's still not my thing.

Back to what we have here, six tracks in ye olde 17ish minutes playtime which was oddly common among demos, meaning some of the tracks are quite short and actually I see the last two marked as bonuses, Rivers... being from the first demo "Subcultures" which I haven't heard and Č. Č. K. Č. Č is... special. The sound is quite good, very airy even returning to this after crawling through the mucky sewer tube of IWC, a bit light but that gives more room of the instruments to do their thing and fits the more melodic moments better. The ample fast parts also do not sound cluttered and messy which is a bonus. I must admit it goes a bit more bouncy and Primus than I really care for from time to time. And beginning of Desolated... is pure Maiden until it isn't. And then again it is, if Iron Maiden used raspy black metallish vocals mind you. Gallop gallop gallop. Now that I think about it more, this is actually pretty cheery when it's not too complex or melancholic. Schizophrenic and all over the place? Enough rambling, have a listen if all that made you curious. I don't know whom to recommend it really but I guess various kinds of people may get something out of it. What a horrible way to end a post.

Olgerd - Olgerd demo 1998

Olgerd - Olgerd demo I 1998
1) Intro
2) The Return of the Trollking
3) Over the Trodarns Mountains of Horror to the Village Scallborn
4) The Olgerd's Olarion
5) Tollrander
6) Blood of Heretic (The New Empire)
7) The Gorlondir's Magic
    a) Skyllnym
    b) The Language of Argadarn
8) Outro

Reuploaded

Here's some non-metal again, dungeon synth to be exact and another contribution: recently comrade Weaver contacted me and sent a couple of items he'd ripped from recently acquired old tapes and this, the first demo by the Slovakian artist Olgerd. Comrade Xexanoth had already posted the 2nd demo in his blog here if you want to hear it - there's a link on the artist's page too. Weaver sent a scan of the front cover too (which was not a full scan and turned out to be a mirrored image too, got a proper one later). Thanks!

Olgerd's ambient dark fantasy music, as he calls it, is made from combining clips and samples from movies (like Braveheart, Excalibur and First Knight on this one), fantasy games (like Warcraft 2) and Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" with sampled instruments, voices and effects in a music program (Fasttracker-2 for this demo). The end result is a sample-heavy (well, obviously) form of dungeon synth that sounds quite cheesy with the obviously artificial instruments and effects. Yet it undoubtably has charisma to it as I've found this growing on me already on second listening (on first I dismissed this as rather crappy effort) - I still don't like the intro much but if you don't let that put you off the first proper track is already much better and the demo holds up nicely for its slightly over half an hour running time. Main inspiration to this demo was the book "Thorleif Larssen - Olgerd from Scallborn: Sword of Thormaren" which the artist himself gleefully labels as "b-class" fantasy. Considering that inspiration I must say he succeeds here. Give this a chance and a second listen too if you enjoy dungeon synth.

UPDATE: I was sent proper cover scans for this (thanks Eugene!) and I've repacked and reuploaded the demo. You might want to consider downloading it again if you're curious to see the full covers and I've also adjusted one of the titles to better match the printed tracklisting.

Unto A Long Glory...3 - Beverina Compilation (1998)

Various Artists - Unto A Long Glory...3 - Beverina Compilation (1998)
Part 1 Slavonic Glory
1) Thy Repentance - Moon Roots of War
2) Nokturnal Mortum - Lastivka 2
3) Crypthowl - Of Seductress in Obsequal Attire
4) Valhalla - Hour of Battle
5) Miktlantekutly - Cemetary
6) Graal - Grand All Embrace
7) Satarial - The Queen of the Elves' Land
8) Misanthropic Poetry - I'm Screaming in the Raven Hills to Sun Will Never Rise
(non-Slavonic bonus track)
9) Fall of the Leafe - The Celestial Keeper
Part 2 Baltic Glory
10) Manatark - Roosteik
11) Heresiarh - Dragons Domain
12) Thy Lord - Mardus
13) Anubi - Kai Pilnates Akis Uzmirks Mirtis
14) Kalm - Igaveseks Mälestama Moistetud
Part 3 Tears of Stone
15) Forgive-Me-Not- Midnight World
16) Chalice - Holy Water
17) Morgain - About

Depositfiles

A compilation tape, again, I've spent some time ripping these ones recently. It's kind of easy. This particular one is a third of a series by Beverina, I must say I haven't heard any of the previous ones - this was an item I just got in random from a small distro. However, the label Beverina was familiar to me, with loads of Slavic and Baltic bands. Of which a load are obviously featured here. The genres of music and quality vary from artist to another and I have to admit I used to prefer this to several other compilations back when I got it. No longer though, most of the material sounds to me awfully generic if not poor but for select ones - probably this is due my taste having been "evolved" or whatever. Still, there are some very good tracks and many not at all notable ones.

This one is a rip of an original tape, with cover scans included. Sound quality and levels are much better than your average 90's compilation - there's nothing exclusive so I can't really recommend it to anyone already into the bands involved and with all their stuff. The division of the bands is, as you see from the track list, Slavonic (mostly ex-USSR) bands on side A, Baltic (well, they're Baltic) start and go for most of side B with a handful categorised as "Tears of Stone" ending it - these are gothic rock/metal. I don't think I've much more to say about this one, but do pick it up if you're curious. Standout tracks for me include 1, 2, 4, 14 & 16. Oh by the way, Finnish Fall of the Leafe ends side A - even if not a Slavonic band.