Neglected Fields - Sansara demo 1996

Neglected Fields - Sansara demo I 1996
1) Sphere's Rhapsody
2) Eschatological
3) Sansara
4) Living Structures

Mediafire / RGhost

Looks this is going to be the last post for this year, thanks to all supporters and contributors and let us keep reaping the tombs next year as well. Today's offering is again by Henri and it is the first demo of the Latvian Neglected Fields who played progressive and technical death metal. No, I don't think they sound like Opeth. Or do they? I'm by no means an expert here. Cover scans are included and these are unusually colourful, which is kind of neat for change. Festive and all that.

This is not the sort of music I am personally very familiar with, nor do I really much care for technical sort of metal in general, but this is staying within fairly reasonable bounds instead of full-blown instrumenstrual orgy and I kind of like their Orientally flavoured esoteric concept, at least in small doses such as the rather standard seventeen minutes this demo runs for. I haven't heard any of their three albums, or any other later output either but as these tracks seem to reappear on the debut I'd assume at least that one is in similar vein to this tape. Progressively technical but still rather agreeable "death" metal, not at all brutal despite the vocalist exclusively utilizing his grunts yet quite interesting and not too fluffy. I'm not sure if I could really stomach a full album of this stuff but a little snack is fine occasionally. Hear for yourself and next year I promise to post more moist, rotten filth scraped off the sacrophagi long forgotten in the dreariest catacombs.

Funereus - Demo 1992

Funereus - Demo 1992
1) Ascension of the Infernal Sephiroth
2) Into the Autumn Shade

Zippyshare / Mega

It's xmas eve and time to end my little advent Coven folly, (almost) daily posting feels too much like work. And what better way to do so than with some funeral death/doom? Recently comrade Cyclades approached me with some contributions and this is the first of them, the 1992 demo by Funereus from New Jersey USA. Funereus is kind of a pre-Evoken but about that more little later. There's no cover unfortunately, I found a semi-decent one online but wouldn't mind a full scan. As a side note, Cyclades believes this demo was spread more by Nick Orlando (who continued on with Evoken and Funebrarum which would explain why a track from this demo ended up as a bonus track on "Quietus" re-release with Peaceville), much of it via tape trading.

So you noticed I said kind of pre-Evoken? Well, here's some background, I quote more or less directly what Cyclades wrote me. Rob Robichaud and Phil Wilson originally came from an oddly named band called Cartilage Ripper that was around circa 1988 to 1990 and apparently played insane death/grind like Nuclear Death and Prophecy of Doom. Nick Orlando came from the group Putrifact, which at other times also included Craig Pillard from Incantation. He formed the band along with Robichaud, trying out a bunch of local musicians, including guys who shortly afterward went on to be in other local groups like Deteriorot and Ceremonium. After a while they recruited drummer Vince Verkay, from a band called Body of Christ, which included Bill Venner who would form Disma many years later. They recorded a bunch of stuff in the spring/summer of '92, spread the recordings and went into a studio that autumn to record tracks for an EP. However it didn't go too well because the studio guys had no idea how to record something so extreme (typical story from back then!) and they basically got disgusted and took a break. Wilson left, and then they reformed as just a trio under the name of Asmodeus with new material, and recorded something around the spring of '93. This was the real "pre-Evoken", as much of the early Evoken stuff is said to originate from this period, whereas Funereus was really an earlier and quite different sounding group. Then, Robichaud left and the band almost broke up for good, but they managed to continue on, eventually became Evoken, and the rest is history as they say!

Ok, that was a lot of names dropped, I guess it's best to say something about the music too, it's funereal death/doom metal, but much more malevolent and severe than many of the contemporaries were or Evoken would later become. There's significantly more death here, that's partially why and closest comparisons would be dISEMBOWELMENT, Lord of Putrefaction and I do hear some Thergothon in places too, but this is more intense than atmospheric and laid back. Ugh, I'm just dropping more names here, better stop and let you listen for yourselves. I'll post another Funereus recording (yes there are more than this) later, with a few more background notes. For now, enjoy some terrifying vintage death/doom.

Waging the War (2001)

Various Artists - Waging the War compilation CD (2001)
1) Antaeus - Inner War
2) Negură Bunget - Immortality's Elegy: the Vampirism
3) Horna - Synkän muiston äärellä
4) Skjull - The Wanderer
5) Ragnarok - Certain Death
6) Frozen Shadows - Of Pain and Insufferable Torment
7) Lord Belial - Come to the Sabbath
8) Esker - Du Nord
9) Garwall - Par delà le bien et le mal
10) Thy Primordial - The Heresy of an Age of Reason
11) NostraDrama - L'hymne nocturne
12) Celestia - Darkness Enfolds the Sky
13) The Burning - Darkness Soon Will Be (rehearsal)
14) Veneficium - The Awakening
15) Azaghal - Ihmisviha
16) Demon Realm - Eternities Unbound Forevermore
17) Winter of the Black Skies - Rider of the Night

Rusfolder / Mediafire

Traditionally the pre-xmas season is aflush with compilations (though usually of the "best of" -variety) and I thought it'd be a good opportunity for the Coven to participate in this practice. Today we have a Canadian (from Québec to be more precise!) black metal compilation CD that I ripped and scanned some months ago. I don't really remember anymore if I had a real reason to do so, but since I have it I decided to share it. Sorry if I was supposed to post this earlier or if someone elsewhere requested it and I forgot. This compilation was the second release on Sepuchral Productions (which was founded by Frozen Shadows vocalist Myrkhaal). The label reactivated a couple of years ago, still concentrating on local black metal, but they do not sell this compilation anymore.

Seven out of seventeen participants hail from Québec so there is a good amount of local colour here which pleases me. Some of the bands are also a bit on the obscure side which is even better. Frozen Shadows is naturally included and I suppose many of the bands here were associates of Myrkhaal back then, the roster is international but with a slight emphasis on a few countries. Seven tracks were recorded exclusively for the compilation but I think (didn't check all of them) most if not all have since reappeared somewhere. Note that I've fixed some typos and inconsistencies on the tracklisting, most notably Azaghal's track "Ihmisviha" is spelled on the booklet and back cover completely wrong as "Immisvitta" - he probably misread Narqath's handwriting? Everyone plays black metal, ranging from the aggressive start of Antaeus to Thy Primordial's fast and melodic black to the more atmospheric approach of Negură Bunget but pretty much all have certain rawness and speed to them so the variation is slighter than usual. This is of course intentional, as the cover states "...this is not the place you will find cute and fashionable black metal". Might be a pro or a con, depending on your tastes, I don't mind the homogeneousness but admittedly a few more midpaced or slow tracks would've spiced things up.

Kalevalanmiekka - Demo 2001

Kalevalanmiekka - Demo I 2001
1) Maailman muodostuminen
2) Tulen synty
3) Kuun ja Auringon taunto

Yandex / RGhost

I decided to continue on a somewhat similar vein as the previous post, this is Finnish stuff though and based on Kalevala myths (which should be obvious looking at the name) and again I know very little of this project, brother Grev dubbed it in a time-honoured fashion as a filler on a tape and he had gotten it himself from master Shatraug back in the day, again I presume to fill up a cassette. I wouldn't be too surprised to find out it was his project, or one of the Lpr comrades. No cover for this one, if one exists I'd appreciate getting a scan and any information in general is welcome.

To the music. The dub unfortunately had a pretty poor sound, mostly since it was very low and a bit one-sided but it's audible when you crank the volume up. At least it's lofi enough if you're into that kind of thing. Music is ambient/ds, quite simple and rather relaxing sounds, some samples of nature sounds and spoken words taken from Kalevala. Or so I think, at least the form is similar. The voice is kind of distant and hard to make out on the first track while much more discernible on the second track, fitting to the nature of fire as is the more active music. I'm not sure if "taunto" on the third track is a typo or supposedly a more archaic form of "taonta" but I decided to keep it written as I got it. This track is somewhat similar to the second one and again that would seem to fit the theme. The whole thing seems a bit short at less than ten minutes and leaves me wondering if more was made later. I suppose this fits under the dungeon synth tag moderately well and the usual people will want to take a listen.

Vindalv - Æptir Pushende Ar demo 1999

Vindalv - Æptir Pushende Ar demo 1999
1) Rampn Skria
2) Hwar Kampin Sta
3) Swærþ Stimma
4) Loki
5) Forfæþernes Bloþ

Zippyshare / Yandex

Time to chill a bit again, is it not? I was originally going to post the Jääportit '99 tape master Sorvali kindly sent me, but seeing that they've quite recently digitally re-released it here, I decided against it and instead present you with this recording by Vindalv, a project of which I know only that it's Swedish, this is demo 1999 and they/he played apparently Norse-themed dungeon synth. That's judging from the titles which appear to be written in some of archaic Swedish. Cover scans were included, thanks again to Henri for them, the rip and info on origin!

This is a quite long demo, slightly over half an hour and with the first track being a shorter piece to lead us into Vindalv's world we're left with four long songs, all fully instrumental and from the slightly more active end of dungeon synth spectrum. Some percussion is employed and cheesy samples and such are (thankfully) absent. I detect some familiar sounding bits on the second track, pretty certain these are "borrowed" from some classical composer. The sound is quite nostalgic and varies between more medieval moods and neoclassical, darkwavey approach. In that way it's closer to Die Verbannten Kinder Evas than Mortiis. Somewhere between DVKE and Gothmog might not be utterly wrong comparison, just a bit off. I was actually quite excited to get this and still enjoy it, though I admit it might more effective were it a wee bit shorter. Recommended listening for other dungeon synth, medieval darkwave and Scandiambient aficionados.

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.

Serpent Lore - Brandishing Damnation Sword demo 1998

Serpent Lore - Brandishing Damnation Sword demo 1998
1) Grimstone Craved
2) The Night Neverending
3) Sears Within the Soul
4) The Freezing Moon (A Tribute to the True Mayhem)

Yandex / 4shared

Another black metal demo from Portugal is upon the alter today, also supplied by master Sorvali, this is Serpent Lore and their '98 tape which also seems to be their only release. Several band members have since continued with a number of black metal bands, all firmly in the never-heard department for me. Ripped from an original tape with cover scans included.

A bit longer songs again this time, though no quarter hour mammoths here, the Mayhem tribute (=cover) has the longest running time of the lot at six minutes. Good enough sounding demo, quite balanced. First thing I noticed on the first track was the pretty traditional heavy metal riffs. Then there are synths. And solos. And more heavy metal. Not very kvlt and grim sort of black metal here, but that's okay you know, better they have more of that Mediterranean touch to proceedings than trying to sound northern, frozen, cold and fake. At times they do stray a bit more into power metallish territory than would be necessary but in general it stays closer to Mortuary Drape than Stratovarius so I am condoning this. The songs aren't exactly catchy, close to that but slightly staying out of grasp, just a bit, fingertips graze but cannot quite reach them. I need sleep, you might want to take a listen to this. Oh yeah, the Mayhem cover is clearly based more on the DMDS-version than the older which would more accurately be called "The Freezing Moon" but I'm completely fine with that as DMDS > anything else by Mayhem. Form small groups and discuss.