Dogmeat - Revolution Paradise demo 1992

Dogmeat - Revolution Paradise demo I 1992
1) For the Gods Above
2) Blood Purified
3) Colossal Althar
4) Revolution Paradise
5) Gnomus Variation
6) Doom Mood
7) Dogmatic Hypothesis Evidence
8) Fuckin' Lullabye

RGhost / Yandex

And now something little different again. Don't let the cover fool you, this is not nsbm or even neofolk, or punk. Dogmeat from Finland was a one-man project that released two demos and two EP's between 1992 - 95. This is the first one and brother Suuret Muinaiset was once again kind enough to sate my curiosity by ripping his copy as well as providing a cover scan, thank you!

Eight tracks which are all quite short, the whole demo lasting less than nineteen minutes and as far as I'm concerned that is a positive thing. I've seen this compared to Godflesh a lot, which I'm not really a fan of, as well as Celtic Frost circa "Into the Pandemonium" (mostly to the atrocious "One in Their Pride") and things as far apart as grind/noise and Black Sabbath. Let it be noted I haven't and won't compare this to Sabbath and would like to apologize to master Iommi & co. for mentioning them together with this thing here. You might have read between the lines I'm not too excited by this and you're right, this is in my humble opinion awful crap. Well, the guitar sound is quite nice. The effected vocals are so annoying I want to throw my headphones out of the window and smash the monitor with this keyboard right now. Fortunately they're not used in every track. I might not be the leading expert in industrial metal so you probably should check this out if you're a fan, I'm off to get some coffee and some z-rate German black metal from 90's to clear my head with. Handle with care!

Vague - Ikei demo 2000

Vague - Ikei demo 2000
1) 紫焔 (しえん)
2) This Wisteria
3) A Lost Forgotten Sad Spirit

Reuploaded

Today I'm posting the third demo of the Japanese solo-project Vague, the sole member of which is Touko, an ex-member of 凶音 (transliterated Magane, have two albums out) and currently playing multiple instruments in 身殺 (Mïsogi) who have released a couple of demos and an album in 2010. He's also released a few demos under his own name 東虎 (Touko, if you already forgot) and Universe Tachyon, neither of which I've heard. Most of these projects deal with Japanese folklore and mysticism, though this one seems more personal on concept. Ripped from an original tape which I got from a distro probably in 2000. By the way, it was really a pain in the ass to dig up correct kanji & hiragana for the first track title!

Three songs, the lenghtiest of which is the Burzum cover, for a little over 22 minutes. The sound is quite unrefined and pretty raw but everything is audible. If you've heard the other projects he's been involved with you might be prepared for this, it's basically black metal but with some odd ingredients thrown in the soup and taking some unexpected turns along the way. I would be curious to hear the other two demos (1999's Lapis-la-zu-li and 2000's One Way Journey to the Moon) so let me know if you have them. Recommended for the curious, the open-minded, the Burzum-obsessed and those who like all things Japanese.

Moondance #4

Moondance Magazine, issue 4 (1998)
Interviews:
Antichrisis
Nagelfar
Desaster
Gorgoroth
Tunrida
Abigor
Primordial
Waylander
Varathron
Helheim
Wallachia
Decoryah
Lacrimas Profundere
My Dying Bride
Nordlys
Menhir
Usurper
Circle of Jormungandr
+Irish scene report (yeah, yet another!), Nomicon article, A tribute to Ernst Jünger & reviews

Reuploaded - 2022

Zine post, this is another item sent to me by comrage Kurgan, thank you! Oversized images sloppily scanned by me. This is the fourth issue for the German quite well-known Moondance fanzine, sorry magazine, spanning over 70 pages with a quite nice semiprofessional lay-out which fortunately remains readable instead of going utterly crazy with font experiments and crap under the text things. Despite the main editor Timo Kölling gradually slipping into the artsy, unique snowflake route on his preferences (most notable in the reviews section, "jewels" part of which especially) I actually quite enjoyed the 'zine. Two contributors for the issue, first Maírtín Mac Cormaic of Waylander who, predictably enough, provided the Irish scene report (possibly the most often featured scene report target in the 90's or at least so it felt like) and Francesco Parmigiani, who used to do Savage Garden/Vampiria 'zines interviews Tunrida & My Dying Bride. Most interviews are good and well-enough answered, even the Varathron one has quite long replies. Recommended if you like later 90's 'zines and/or have interest in the scene of those days.

Sorath - The Darkness Returns CassEP 1995

Sorath (us) - The Darkness Returns cassette EP 1995
1) The Darkness Returns
2) Winter Black and Sorcery Beyond
3) Dark Tears of Thy Past
4) Frozen Mountains Under Forboding Skies
5) Thy Bestial Winterland
6) Wings of Darkness
7) Spirits Floating Beyond

RGhost / Mediafire

Satanic Saturday sorcery! Sorath returns, with the very hard to find 1995 tape we discussed with comrade Fenrirsson in the comments for the 7" I posted here. Thanks to my anonymous contributor, this item was unearthed much sooner than I had dared to hope. According to him this was a cassette EP and I think I've seen it referred so elsewhere too so let's go with that description here. Unfortunately no covers and no luck finding them on the inter nets either so I made a placeholder cover using an old flyer printed on Pure Fucking Hell 'zine. It's supposed to be like a cassette cover though I probably have wrong proportions. Let's see how soon people who don't read these walls of text think this is an actual cover. Scan of which I'd naturally appreciate!

Seven tracks might momentarily delude you to think this'd be almost album length, but four of the tracks are short intros/interludes while the three longer tracks all clock over five minutes, bringing total time to an EP-appropriate 22 minutes. Sound and rip quality is ok, if a little muffled. I doubt the original is exactly hifi stuff either. Overall sound manages to come out quite clear, it is the low end that is mostly muddled into sort of nigh-impenetratable wall of audio fog, billowing and fluffy. There's an omni-present hiss which hints at an unknown generation dub origin of the source tape. The vocals are mostly an echoing, whispery half hiss half shriek which at best sounds quite chilling. Some kind of clean choirs are used in few places. I find myself enjoying this and wish I had an original copy of the tape. If you have one, send it to me, you don't need it. Recommended if you're a connoisseur of the good Baron's work.

Celestial Empire - Distant Valleys demo 1995

Celestial Empire - Distant Valleys demo I 1995
1) Crossing the Lands of Shadows
2) Distant Valleys
3) Whispering Souls
4) Secrets of the Mystified Dreams
5) Under the Sun

Zippy / Media

Here's a "real" post again and this one was dubbed to me by Grev, to replace my shitty nth generation version, thanks bro! He sent me scans of the covers too so this time we've got that bit covered. I should mention the covers don't look as dark as what you see above, I was editing the image and playing with the settings while that came up and I thought it looked cool enough to use as an image for the post here on blog.

I suppose I should talk about the demo and the band too. Celestial Empire was one of those numerous bands that appeared in the mid-90s, did a tape or two (they did two) and disappeared. Music on this debut demo was melodic death metal, the Metal Archives entry says death/black metal but I'm not picking up any black metal here, I can agree to dark metal if I must. Perhaps the vocalist's style (harsh half-scream half-roar, which really is more typical of melodic death in my opinion) might have mislead the contributor, or the track titles? Whatever, this is a pretty typical demo of the style, with a good sound (Tico-Tico studio), reasonable performance and ok songwriting. It's not just very memorable or remarkable, but if you like dark metal, 90's Finnish metal and/or melodeath you should give this a listen.

Raven - Alone in the Mist demo 1998

Raven (fin) - Alone in the Mist demo 1998
1) Calls in the Cold Winternight
2) Shadows Beyond a Stone
3) Joining the Gathering of a New Kingdom
4) Woundheir
5) Alone in the Mist
6) Outro

Yandex / Zippy

Here's something I don't do too often, but since I promised to re-rip this demo to Pete back in October (yeah, not very fast I know!) I thought I'd make a new post of the fixed and hopefully better version of the rip. See the original here for notes and background babble. I didn't include the scan of the note with tracklisting this time, simply because I don't have that scan anymore and didn't want to dig it up again. Instead I had too much time in my hands some time ago and tried to whip up a cover for it, using someone's photo (sorry I forgot whose) that came up googling "in the mist" or whatever search I used back then. Couldn't decide which version to use so I just dumped all four into the folder and used scientific method to choose one here (rolled 4-sided dice). Which looks kind of lame.

Anyways, it's the music we're here for, right? Except for 'zine posts I suppose. Yes, so, what I wrote back then about the music hasn't changed, it's still gloomy and doomy and there's still tape wear but the disturbance is fixed and overall the thing should sound a bit better. If you didn't pick up the old version try this out if you like your music like a thick blanket; heavy and suffocating yet strangely comfortable.

Cradle Of Filth - A Pungent and Sexual Miasma Split 1992

Cradle Of Filth - A Pungent and Sexual Miasma ½ Split tape 1992
1) So Violently Sick (From Demo 2)
2) Funereal (Ipswich 13-03-92)
3) Dawn of Eternity (Reh 03-03-92)
4) Circle of Perversion (From Demo 1)
5) Chewing on Your Guts (Reh 03-03-92)
6) Loathsome Christ (Ipswich 13-03-92)
7) Darkly Erotic (From Demo 2)
8) This Fetid Dank Oasis (Ipswich 13-03-92)
9) Our Father Which Art in Earth (actually "Foul Winds Threaten" from Demo 2)

Mediafire

Here's some more old COF sent by comrade Ruptured Souls, thank you. Unfortunately this is only a half of the "A Pungent..." tape, side B being Malediction's part which he did not have. I don't think I've ever heard Malediction so I can't say if we're missing much but it's a matter of principle so if you have their part of the tape please get in touch! The folder includes various images of the covers so that's covered.

As you may see from the notes, COF's tracks are compiled from the first two demos and from a live show and a rehearsal from March '92. Malediction's part would've been compiled from a live show and a rehearsal from '91 so in essence this split was a compilation. Death metal era COF so fans of their black metal or symphonic extreme metal periods might not be too enthusiastic listening to the content. On the other hand, those who can't stand later stuff and love more brutal and crude metal might enjoy this. The sound ranges from the good demo sound to slightly messier but still listenable live to crude yet (barely) audible rehearsal. Nothing sounds utterly horrible, at least if you're a seasoned listener of old tapes. Material itself ranges from good to pretty boring, I'm no death metal specialist after all. Cautiously recommended to those who think they like old COF.