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!

Gorgoroth - Rehearsal Tape '93

Gorgoroth [fin] - Rehearsal tape 1993 (probably)
1) Trapped in Icy City
2) Mournfull Gathering
3) Mournfull Gathering (pitkä versio)

Zippyshare / Yandex

Sorry, it's not the better known Norwegian Gorgoroth but the quite obscure Finnish one. As usual, I'm posting a Finnish item for the 6th December which, in case you've forgotten, is the independence day of Finland. So yeah, this is actually obscure enough for both me and brother Suuret Muinaiset, who dubbed me this and some other things some time ago, to not know what year it is from. Or that's how I remember it, I seem to have misplaced brother SM's letter that came with the tape (a letter is like an email written on a sheet of paper, possibly manually, and sent via the postal services, kids) but I'm almost certain he couldn't recall it anymore. Anyways, it's early 90's and I've seen it before on some trading list or another but fail to recall if it had a year listed or just "9x" or perhaps "9?" instead. I'm thinking '91 or '92, '93 at the very latest. Brother Grev, have you heard about this? Got any clues? Anyone?
UPDATE: As expected, Grev replied quickly and thinks this is '93. Let's go with that until proven otherwise and thanks to both SM & G

Obviously no cover for this, I believe they just dubbed it to some people like was a common practice at the time. All the three songs are instrumental and as you probably notice, the third one is just a longer version of the second track. And yes, I know it's misspelled, but if that's how they did it so do we! After all, it's "Necromansy" and "In Conspirasy with Satan" (though some heretics go "correct" the latter) and that's it! Everything is instrumental and music is sort of black/death metal hybrid, the reason we're calling it black in the first place is that I'm under the impression they considered themselves that. Rehearsal sound is a little messy for the bass, especially on faster parts (typical), but generally clear enough to distinguish all the necessary details. Kind of booming and echo-y. The last song's sound differs a little from the first two, being a bit more subdued. Another take with equipment slightly moved I suppose. The music isn't as crude and simple as you might expect, it's actually pretty melodic, more on the melancholic side rather than brutal and actually interesting enough for me to wonder how they would've sounded on a proper demo.

Well, that we're probably never going to know, unless somebody appears with another recording, perhaps done under a different monicker. I don't expect that to happen so let us just enjoy this for what it is. Or not, if you dislike instrumental stuff with rehearsal sound. Personally I like instrumental recordings better than ones with bad vocals so I can go ahead and give this a seal of Approval, Recommendation, Support and Excellence. "Excellence" might be going a bit far but I'm on a jovial mood today.

Aeternum Maleficium - The Sons of the Sun demo 1995

Aeternum Maleficium - The Sons of the Sun demo 1995
1) The Magnificent Magnitude of the Night Body (Parts I, II, III)
2) Chant to a Star

Zippyshare / Yandex

Let us chill out once again, but today's items comes with a twist: a plea for assistance. You might've noticed this name appearing on my want list and still remaining there despite the fact I'm posting the demo right here, right now. You see, me and especially the donor of the tape this '95 demo of überobscure Brazilian project Aeternum Maleficium was dubbed on are very keen on finding someone with, preferably but not absolutely necessarily, an original copy of this or failing that, a better dub than the one we (well, mostly me) were working with. The contributed tape was not terribly worn itself but the dub is of nth generation and leaves its mark. We've no cover or any other illustration to offer either so that would be really appreciated too. A band pic/logo would do also.

To the content: there are only two tracks which I hope to have divided correctly. The first one is way longer of the two which is fitting as it should contain three parts. The second one runs in usual metal song duration. Dark ambient with somewhat otherworldly feeling to it, most of the time just synths floating around in the gentle waves of tape hiss, occasionally obscured by clouds of wear and buffeted by winds of tear. Some voices appear in the first track but they're scarce enough. And percussion, used also very sparingly and effectively. The sound forces my hand to add the dungeon synth tag too, this seems deserving. It's quite simple but pleasant and pretty relaxing, not at all harsh or threatening. The second track especially appeals to me today and makes me wish there was more. Somehow personally I've grown accustomed and even fond off of the challenges and limitations presented by the dub reminiscent of an ancient scroll, stained and nearly crumbling apart whenever you pursue to study the contents. I fear a pristine copy might lack the aura of mystery and otherness this has, but still, get in touch if you have an original tape. Meanwhile this is recommended for fellow scholars with a fondness for imperfect visions.

Satanis Nocturne - Essence of the Dark Age demo 1998

Satanis Nocturne - Essence of the Dark Age demo 1998
1) Transcendental Overture
2) Unholy Ground
3) Desolate Aeons
4) The Conjuring
5) Passage into Shadows

4shared / Yandex

Sunday twilight chillout zone Mother's Day edition with an obscure US project contributed by our comrade master Fenrirsson, many thanks for this interesting treat! We don't have much information on Satanis Nocturne but apparently it was a project of someone involved with Anwyl and it was released by Nicola of Hellflame whom F contacted prior to us uploading this. Unfortunately he's lost his copy of the tape also years ago so no cover but at least we got his blessing for this necromancy. If you happen to possess an original copy please get in touch with scans!

This is neoclassical Satanic dark ambient music, fully instrumental (yayness!) and with touches of darkwave and dungeon synth. Very soundtrack-like also, quite easy to listen to for a neophyte but pleasing enough for a grizzled veteran. Or at least for me. I speculated with Fenrirsson if this could be another project of Mikai Tepesh, he was with Anwyl and was credited among other instruments for synth on the Nephilim cover. The uncertainity is driving me nuts, confirm, confirm, CONFIRM! For now, enjoy this if you like cinematic keyboard music with a flair for dramatic and an affiliation with the Devil, I must rush off to work.

Yggdrasil - The Renaissance of the Norse Horde promo '94

Yggdrasil - The Renaissance of the Norse Horde promo 1994
1) The Renaissance of the Norse Horde

RGhost / Yandex

Remember when I wrote in the last post: "...with room for an obscure filler track, maybe I should post such next..."? Well, I decided to do just that, seeing that master Fenrirsson had sent me a very appropriate item with the Bestial Warlust rip the other month! Right, this is the mysterious, curious, cryptic, enigmatic, wrapped in mystery, veiled in secrecy and shrouded in obscurity Yggdrasil of Denmark and what appears to be their only recording, a one-song promo tape from '94. Ok, they're not that esoteric and I used mystery twice, there's a Metal Archives entry after all but hardly any proper information. Even the Danish trader comrade of F knew nothing else about them. Obviously no cover, logo or band pic, and any or all would be welcome.

So it's kvlt and obskvre but is it any good? Yeah, not bad at all! Raw, decent sound, mostly fast paced Scandinavian-style black metal with some melodies, aggressive black metal rasps and compact playtime of under four minutes and even slight variation though delicious repetition is prominent. I wonder if in some tomb, ruin or catacomb another recording might lurk buried by dust and bones? For now it's really a one-hit wonder and worth checking out, there's not that much vintage Danish black metal about.

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.

Infernal Destruction - Death, Violence, Satanism demo 1996

Infernal Destruction - Death, Violence, Satanism demo 1996
1) Satan's Anarchy
2) Song of Satan
3) End of God
4) Christ Is Drunk

Mega / Sendspace

It's been a bit quiet at the Coven this month as I have been preoccupied with other things. But to show we're not completely on a summer vacation here's a curious contribution sent by master Mihkel Kleis (you might remember him from the Messier items of the other year) a little while ago. And this should be pretty obscure again, a demo tape by Tartu's short-lived (1996-97) Infernal Destruction. He found the tape in a thift store among a pile of other demos and got curious, to our benefit. Scans of the covers are included and the rip quality is very good.

The music here sounds... unique. It's black metal, sure, but more like old Venom, first album Bathory and such rather than the peers of their era, Scandinavian or Estonian. The extremely lo-fi but clear and crispy "production" brings also to my mind some German stuff like Siren or Sacrifice Slaughtered Jesus. But this has more punky vibe to it and once again the enthusiasm level is much higher than skills. The guitar distortion is raw and strange, drums extremely bizarre and stripped down, but definitely played by human hand. Vocals are as crude as the rest. There is certain attractiveness to their cooking that really even should not be there but just happens. I should probably drop Sacrilegeous here also as a reference, though these are younger, eager men fumbling about. Fascinating.

Mihkel managed to get in touch with Sven Reimaa who was credited on the covers by his full name and got further information that enabled him to reach Satanizer who apparently still is active, not with metal though. He had played in a few other bands between 1997 and 2002. Apparently this was recorded in an apartment with a dictaphone, considering that the sound is quite good! Mihkel wanted to know what kind of equipment they used for recording and here's what Satanizer told (in rough translation): "...It is possible that at that moment I didn't have proper guitar amp and instead I played directly through home stereo and for distortion there was an old soviet tape recorder where turning up the recording volume caused the effect of overamplification. But maybe I already had Peavey 10w trans amp and DOS FX58 Metal Maniac pedal. The "drum set" was nothing but two so called pioneer drums made of saheet metal and pot lids for cymbals" - which does explain a lot! Gotta love their ingenuity. He also asked how many copies were made, after all the demo had full lyrics on sleeve and was dubbed on exact length tape, instead of standard TDK, Maxell or whatever. Satanizer replied there were about 20 copies made and mostly spread among friends, never really advertised or distributed. It was played once in radio though - in Raadio 2 metal show "Metallion" hosted by Enrico Kaljurand with whom our contributor used to trade with. So there, this is obviously for people into rarities, lo-fi enthusiasts, collectors of Baltic obscura and maybe even for people into punk. Thanks again to Mihkel for both the contribution and the detective work!

The Mystickal East - Herbz Niszra Nisa-Inranna II demo 1996

The Mystickal East - Herbz Niszra Nisa-Inranna II demo II 1996
1) The Arrival of Niszra's Hearse (Intro) / Crystal Jewel Zhevana
2) Blissful Void to Janna
3) Sharna Naruntila
4) Enigmaxur's New Hell
5) Eht Herbz, Way Down to the East
6) Rejoice in the Light... Sadness and Despair

RGhost / Yandex

The people voted for the Orient this time so let's do another contribution, this is The Mystickal East I was already referring to in this post and their 1996 demo "Herbz Niszra Nisa-Inranna II" which also might be the only release too. Me and my contributor have no more information on this project than Floral of Forever so anything you can tell is welcome. We suspect these projects might be by same people as there are similarities in sound. No cover obviously either so any image you can provide is welcomed. UPDATE: I was informed that both of FoF and TME are projects by the same person MD Aslan and hail from Brunei, not Malaysia! Aslan's other bands include(d) Rust Sakaraz, Noiratasya and Shadowmirth. Active fellow! UPDATE II: This interview and other sources indicate the name is spelled with a "k" so I've reuploaded it, corrected. I bet the song titles aren't correct either but those can't be verified without the covers.

The rip is slightly poorer quality than FoF, mainly notable on the first track where the sound fails a bit but gets better eventually. Musically this is most similar to the darkwavey parts of the FoF demo (tracks 3 and 4) though a metal influence feels more prominent here, the first track proper could almost be tagged black metal with the harsh voice and percussion. An intro starts the demo in a rather peaceful tone, it has a very nostalgic dungeon synthic feel to it. I should've really separated it from the main track now that I think of it again. Dammit. The tape fail I was referring to manifests in slightly muffled and wonky sound that suddenly gets better and clearer, as if someone had been dubbing this from behind a closed door and then finally gets the bright idea to open the door and enter the room. "Crystal Jewel Zhevana" part of the track is practically black metal, more Summoning that darkwave. Three shorter tracks follow, first more like an interlude and second a short instrumental and quite metal with the percussion. The melody there sounds annoyingly familiar but can't quite put my finger on it. Third one is gloomy, dramatic and more ambientish/dungeon synth, unfortunately a bit messy sounding too, most notably when the vocals are present. The fifth song continues similar to the fourth but is much longer and has more variation with percussion and tempo changes added. It changes more metalesque somewhere before half way. Last track is the longest of the lot and similarily slower tempo but more metal. This is pretty hard to put into a single, simple category. Recommended for people into mixtures of ambient, wave, ds and synth-black metal, collectors of Eastern demonology and the generally curious.

Floral of Forever - Ad Infinitum promo 1996

Floral of Forever - Ad Infinitum promo 1996
1) Prologue for My Own Obscure Nature
2) ...As If There Would Be Another Time to Delve
3) The Mysteries of It's Great Floras
4) ...I Am the King of This Isolated Golden Forest
5) ...Ad Infinitum

RGhost / Mega

Sunday night chill out time is here and we continue with obscure things without covers. This is again a contribution, thanks to the sender, and looks like they had these sort of projects going on over in Malaysia as well for that's where tonight's recording hails from. Or so I've been told. This is (hopefully, spelling?) Floral of Forever and a 1996 promo tape and that's pretty much all I know about it. Possibly shares members with the equally obscure The Mystical East. A cover scan and really any information is welcome!  

UPDATES: 1. I was informed that both of FoF and TME are projects by the same person M.D. Aslan and hail from Brunei, not Malaysia! Aslan's other (metal) bands include Rust Sakaraz, Noiratasya and Shadowmirth.
2. Added a picture of Aslan shot for another project of his as a placeholder for this post. Thanks to Eugene for sending it.

Ok, music: almost seventeen minutes of... well, this is kind of a hard one to say! First track is an ambient intro, second is a short ambient bit that also has what sounds like a wind instrument thrown in while the third track gets pretty upbeat, adds percussion and sounds more like darkwave with a slight sugar high. Fourth continues in the same line but with even more obnoxious "drum" sound. And other sounds. It's kind of fascinating while almost disastrous. It's almost like a metal song gone slightly ambient/wave-y. Harsh vocals make an appearance in the end part, further adding to the speculation that this might be a side project by some metal band. The last and longest song is again ambient and a nostalgic, moody one. Actually I'd say it's pretty much dungeon synth and the first tracks might as well be called that too. A really obscure and odd thing, this. Recommended for the usual curio seekers and I'd really like to know more about this!

Agathion - Rehearsal '95

Agathion [fin] - Rehearsal Tape 1995
1) Black Mass
2) Winter Hymn

RGhost / 4shared

I think you might've noticed I was writing about two rehearsal tapes in the previous post so without further ado here's the second Agathion rehearsal I was dubbed by brother Grev, thanks as always! I'm not going to repeat my (lack of) background information here, what was written on the previous entry applies here so we move onto content.

Two songs again, this time they're both "proper" tracks so it's a little bit longer recording. Notice the award-winningly generic song titles. Not that it's necessarily such a bad thing. The sound is quite similar to the previous tape, though a bit less clear in a way. The instrumentation seems a little fuller this time around, perhaps there are more musicians involved? It's still more melancholic than aggressive but leans more obviously to black metal side of things, at least in my opinion. Overall tempo is quite slow, especially in the first rather dreary dirge. The second song speeds up to a midtempo and includes background vocals to an interesting effect. A very awkward, brief solo is included too. Strangely this sounds this time around much more interesting than on the previous and initial listens, perhaps it's growing on me? And now I'm wondering if there were more rehearsal tapes or anything else by them, as usual drop me a note if you know something. Recommended but with a bit of caution.

Agathion - Rehearsal '94

Agathion [fin] - Rehearsal tape 1994
1) Prayer of a Suffering Man
2) Beyond Sacrifice

Reuploaded

This is a quickie, as in a really short release once again. It also serves to satisfy the curiosity of a certain comrade and initially when I asked brother Grev to dub me the two rehearsal tapes of Finnish Agathion, mine. I don't really have much information on the band, as far as I know/remember they just recorded these rehearsal tapes that were sent to some people and that's it. Or was there a demo too? I think I recall at least one, maybe two less-than-enthusiastic reviews in 'zines but my memory is really undependable here. Brother Grev didn't really have much to say either, except that he recalled getting the recordings via trading circa '96/'97. No covers and probably none were made either.

I said this is short and this means less than five minutes for the two tracks here, second being more like an outro. The rehearsal sound is not bad really, it's kinda full, almost warm and a little awkward sounding. Music is medium paced and somewhere in the middle ground between black and death metal. It's more melancholic than aggressive overall and despite being a brief, somewhat clumsy and ever so slightly embarassing experience it has certain charm to it. Reminds me of something I haven't done in a while, that. There's some annoying wear in later part of the first track but nothing too drastic. I suppose that is all I have to say about it, recommended for the usual curious/fanatic lot and collectors of old obscure recordings.

The Dark Funeral - In Thy Forest... demo 1993

The Dark Funeral - In Thy Forest... demo II 1993
1) Intro
2) Fullmoon Rites
3) The Funeral
4) In Memoriam
5) Mørke tider
6) Mourning Shadows
7) Eternal
8) After the Battle
9) Outro

Version 1: Natural hiss
Mediafire / RGhost

Version 2: Noise reduced
Reuploaded

Next stop on the tour is, unsurprisingly if you can read a map, Denmark and here's yet another contribution, the second demo by the elusive one-man synth project The Dark Funeral. Not to be mixed with the slightly better known Swedes. I've been looking for the two demos of this project since forever, inspired by the interview on Blokong 'zine and finally scored the second one so many thanks to the sender, you know who you are! Sadly no cover scans so I just had to use the picture from the 'zine, I could've also used the logo (see below) but Blasphemous simply needed to be my pick.

However, all is not peachy as the rip was from a heavily circulated dub with absolutely massive amount of tape hiss. It's like a faucet running, not drowning the recording but pretty darn nearly. So, I resorted to what I don't usually do and tried applying noise reduction filter to diminish the admittedly distracting hissing. The result is okayish, works a little better on synth stuff like this I guess, but you can still notice the filter's unfortunate side effects in places. I'll leave the choice to you then, pick either the version with the hissing included for more "natural" experience or the reduced version which has less extra distraction.

As for the music itself, like I thought it'd be it's a rather typical one-man-and-his-casio-in-the-woods sort of project, which I don't really find a bad thing after all! Somewhere between darkwave and dungeon synth, the nine tracks are generally a bit on the shorter side (total running time is a bit under 23 minutes) and rather varied, from the 'waveish "Fullmoon Rites" to solemn "The Funeral" and minimalistic standout "Mørke tider" - despite this it still overstays a little, but this is definitely a recommended listen to all into kitchy dark synth stuff! And I really want to hear the first demo.

Tem Ohp Ab - Rehearsal Track 1995

Tem Ohp Ab - Rehearsal Track 1995
1) Swastika's Occult Origin

Yandex / RGhost

A quickie for tonight. Burn the Crucifix was an Italian black metal band that recorded (at least) two demos and then, I quote Metal Archives, "Anaboth changed the band's name to Tem Ohp Ab and was the only member remaining. One track is known to exist that was spread via tape trading". This is that track. I think he quit the band/project soon afterwards, possibly due there already being an Italian noise/something act Tem Oph Ab which was getting known better. Whatever the case, I got this track from, you guessed it, tape trading and there's no cover or much anything else to go by so I slapped a BtC picture to decorate the post. Hopefully that's the right guy!

UPDATE ! : Sister Borderline dug up an interview (in Polish) with Tem Ohp Ab and a flyer with a proper image! Though looks like they changed the spelling to "Oph" at some point too, just to complicate stuff I bet! Anyways, I now really want to hear the releases mentioned in there, namely the demo of same name as this track and an EP "In Search of North's Spirit" which is a title I'm certain I've seen before! Traderlist, most likely.

The track itself is raw and slightly repetitive slab of black metal. Rehearsal sound so rawness is pretty much given. Drums are almost lost in the grating sawing of the guitar, vocals are very audible and not bad at all. I wouldn't mind hearing more of this, but there probably isn't anything. Oh, despite the word "Swastika" on the title I don't think this is nsbm. If Burn the Crucifix demos sound anything similar I'd love to hear them so get in touch if you have 'em. Recommended for people into obscure and raw black metal.

Pilgrim - Minimal Brain Dysfunction demo 1994

Pilgrim - Minimal Brain Dysfunction demo 1994
1) Pain
2) Nameless Child
3) Lost Life

4shared / Mediafire

Back to Finland but still more death metal and another mysterious contribution, this one by master Sorvali who recalls buying this demo from Black & White in Helsinki circa '94 - '95. The cover lists the band members by first names, the contact (and probably drummer/vocalist) Jussi Tuomela from Turku and recording place Riverside Studio but no recording or release year. Anyone know this band and/or demo, please verify the year! These kind of mysteries drive men to gibbering madness.
UPDATE: Master Turo, the man (well, back then a lad of seventeen summers) responsible for the cover drawing dates the demo to '94 which matches my educated guess so we're going with that. Thanks again for the info!

The music presented on these three tracks is death metal, mostly midpaced with a good and clear sound though the vocalists growls are rather dominant. The song titles look quite death/doomy, don't they? I wouldn't go as far as call this death/doom, it's simply death metal. I'm a little hard pressed to drop names right now, death metal after all isn't my forte, but this sounds quite good, not that heavy or dark but more groovy if you know what I mean? It's actually quite thrashy at times... well I like it better than Deceiver and let's leave it at that. You're probably intrigued by this anyway and download it no matter what I say about the music. The cover looks kind of neat too, doesn't it?

Faethon - Far to the North demo 1995

Faethon (fin) - Far to the North demo 1995
1) After the War
2) Scarlet Tears
3) First Snow
4) Far to the North
5) The Wizard from the North
6) The End

Mediafire

Finnish material and this rip, by me, is another result of my pact with brother passetiermes as he sent me a couple of tapes besides the 'zines I've scanned thus far. Thank you again for assisting the Coven! Here's a rather obscure band called Faethon, very different from the current Greek one, and their probably only recording. As an interesting bit of trivia, Jerry "Serpent" Kurunen of Nightside / Annihilatus / Imperiumi - fame is credited for the lyrics. Cover scans are included.

What is this like then? Sounds very much like older Sentenced is really pretty much enough to say, it's melodic northern death-ly metal. Think back to "Amok" or "Love and Death" and you've got a pretty good general idea. The main vocal is not really a proper death metal growl, grunt, roar or scream, more like very rough singing voice. Clean vocals are also used and both are definitely amateurish and rather crude in a very sincere way. Am I making any sense here? I was having a little hard time with the track division at first as it seemed to have only five tracks, but I then decided the title track and "The Wizard..." blend into each other with the former being the longer instrumental part in the beginning. Which is, actually, the best track to my taste as I'm not really into the vocals. That is all, I must hurry off for now. Have a listen for yourself if the description or the relative obscurity intrigued you.

Apollyon - In the Moonlit Valleys unreleased demo 1995

Apollyon (den) - In the Moonlit Valleys unreleased demo (?) 1995
1) Shadow Shapes
2) My Sadistic Queen
3) Troldeskovens Aander

4shared / Rusfolder

Now that the easiest to find has been taken care of (see previous post) let's move to the more obscure fare provided by comrade Chris, this is again Apollyon of Denmark and what appears to be an unreleased demo recording from 1995. It was on the same mixtape as the '95 demo, unfortunately Chris could not find the sheet Azter sent him with the cassette which might have had more details so if anyone out there knows more please share your info with us! As you see the title track of the Troldeskovens Aander demo appears here too, while the other titles as well as the title of the whole recording are in English, a mix similar to the '93 promo which leads me to suspect this would've been recorded earlier in '95. If the biography is to be believed, they were pretty much inactive in 1994.

The sound is a bit rough, actually somewhat rehearsal-like but certainly good enough for a black metal demo. In a way it's actually a bit better than on Troldeskovens Aander as it doesn't get as cluttered in the faster sections and the bass is pleasantly audible. Music is similar to the official 1995 demo, generally midtempoish and atmospheric, though they do speed up a bit from time to time. Now that I think of it, given how well the bass can be heard, maybe this could've been recorded after T.A. when they let Korihor go and Azter joined? The second track ends sounding like the tape got wonky but I suppose this is special effects rather than an error. The version of Troldeskovens Aander here is shorter than on the demo and sounds better to my ear, the different elements are more audible and distinct thanks to the recording. So, recommendable especially if you liked them already and worth checking out even if you weren't that keen on the other releases. Again, any further information is appreciated!

Projekt Vwreede - Promo 1994

Projekt Vwreede - Promo 1994
1) Hat till liv döljs i åtrå till de döda

RGhost / Yandex

Ok, I'm sure plenty of the followers were not much impressed with the previous post. So in the ages old tradition of Friday Night Filler (yeah it's already sat. morning but no it is not until I've slept first) here's an extremely obscure thing dubbed to me by exalted brother Grev, hail again! This is a solo project recording of Steril Vwreede who you will remember from Vålnad Ur Rymd, Near Dark and other projects I'm too drunk to recall.

Single song, rehearsal quality, I really have not too much to say about it. The sound here is more like a very low fidelity fluffy demo quality instead of the raw rehearsal sound of VUR. It's a single track so I can't really compare it much, well to be honest everything I have is Grev's data on it and even there I took the liberty of adjusting the name to what he used elsewhere. It would be nice to learn if there was anything else recorded and if this really is just as solo thing as it seems more really like a group effort. But that's what I'm working here with, and have been sitting on for a bit.

UPDATE: An anonymous reader commented that this would not be Vwreede but someone else, we await further details. See the comments on this post for more.

Dark Art - Necromancy demo 1995?

Dark Art - Necromancy demo 199..5? 1996?
1) Revelation
2) Necromancy
3) Magic
4) Dark Side
5) Possession
6) Agony

Mediafire

So I was drinking some gin and beer and probably vodka soon seeing that the other stuff is running out and thought: "Why don't I post something on the blog?" Seemed like a good idea and following that I am posting yet another contribution, this time a bit more mysterious release as my divinations haven't revealed much about it. My contributor didn't have a lot to say either, it's "an obscure French synth demo" to quote him. Thanks for the contribution, you know who you are! Right, this is a demo by a one man effort called Dark Art, includes photos of the covers which are not too informative. I think this was released around mid-90's but could be horribly wrong. I'm not sure if I've seen any mentions of it in 'zines, the name being very generic it's easy to forget! So, if you can verify the year this was released it'd be helpful and naturally any further info is welcome.

Enough babbling and to the main course which would obviously be the music. Six chapters for almost 28 minutes, with a concept that should be pretty obvious looking at the titles. It starts off bombastic enough with pounding percussion in what seems to be an introductory segment. By the way, this isn't my rip but I divided it into tracks and am not sure if it went right or wrong so blame me for that. The intro section is followed by also percussion-heavy main part which has more synths going on. It actually sounds more electronic than dungeon-like, even if I have categorized it into ds, possibly due the sounds used and the prominent percussion. There are quite brooding segments and the next piece is more forlorn in overall tone, despite the quite tacky electronic drums. I wish I had more gin, the vodka is not complimenting this as well. I like this piece more than the previous one. "Magic" continues from where "Necromancy" left off and makes me again wonder about my track divisions, but it has interludes that are... different. I'm not going to go track by track here, sufficient to say it stays generally in the similar vein with variations, thankfully instrumental and with a helping of cheese you might or might not enjoy. All dungeon synth enthusiasts, lovers of man-and-synth-in-the-forest - projects and eccentrics should give this a go. Velkaarn out.

Rune - Rune demo 1995

Rune (nor) - Rune demo 1995
1) Vargtime
2) Blodhevn

Mediafire / RGhost

Today's post is an item that is as short as it is obscure, here is a two song demo from a Norwegian band (or project?) Rune dating to 1995. And that's pretty much all I know about them or this demo. As you might guess, I've gotten this one too from a tape trader and all he had was what I wrote above and a messed up tracklisting. By messed up I mean that obviously he did not speak any Norwegian and had probably gotten this from someone else who had gotten it from yet another person etc... all most likely sending handwritten tracklists and so essentially it ends up being a game of broken telephone (or Chinese whispers, or grapevine or whatever you call it) and the end result warped into this:
1. Vargetime
2. Byskup Bammopvd Bloodhevn

No, that's not making much sense and the three words (vargtime, biskop and blodhevn) I could decipher as Norwegian were all misspelled and the middle word on the second track just wouldn't end up making any sense. Needless to say this left me quite disheartened and I ended up basically forgetting this in my READY items folder. That is until comrade Borderline posted this compilation here in her blog which, miraculously enough, featured the second track from this demo and the title there was simply "Blodhevn". Encouraged by this (most certainly a sign from lord Satan) I decided to follow suit and ignore the bits I couldn't translate and here we finally are. Long, boring story.

Say something about the music? Well, first off this is a really, really short demo, barely over four minutes. The first song "Vargtime" is almost two minutes and instrumental, a folky piece performed mainly on electric guitar. The second song has percussion and vocals added and it's is midtempoish, atmospheric and manages to sound simultaneously vaguely folky and grim. For a quick name drop session I'm reminded of the likes of Ulver (before they went mad and electronic), Burzum and Strid.
I would love to get any further information on this and if there is anything else recorded, that. This ends too soon. Recommeded.

Black Wailing - Through Eternal Winters demo 1995

Black Wailing - Through Eternal Winters demo I 1995
1) Ancient Summoning
2) Through Eternal Winters
3) Funeral into the Deep of Darkness

Yandex / Zippy

Today's post is a step aside from black metal but not far. Obscure Greek project Black Wailing released two demos circa 1995 before vanishing from whence they came and this is the first of them, rip and pic courtesy of a contributor who not long ago contacted me. Thank you! It's bit lower bitrate (128) but you just have to make do with it.

So here we have about thirteen minutes of black ambient/dungeon synth recorded December 1994 and released in the beginning of 1995, besides the gloomy instrumentation we get black metalish vocals, synths that really cling to take you with them, slight hiss... well everything you either love or hate with this sort of music. The vocals are okay but I, as usual, could do without them. In general you'll probably enjoy this if you like ds or and "black ambiance".