Congestion - Studio Rehearsal Tape 9.10.92

Congestion - Studio Rehearsal Tape 09.10.1992
1) Intro
2) Burnt Into My Mind
3) Bed of the Ancient River

RGhost / Mediafire

Let's end this month in a slightly lighter note: another offering from brother Grev's nigh-inexhaustible stash of Congestion / Let Me Dream relics. This is again a '92 recording with early versions of two tracks and intro from the well-known "Bed of the Ancient River" '93 demo. The rip is courtesy of Grev's co-plotter, as usual. Thanks for your contributions to the cause yet again! This one had no cover either so I resorted to a similar placeholder as used on the earlier Congestion posts.

This is a short tape, less than eight minutes and both songs are shorter and obviously less polished than the versions in the demo. Sound is pretty good, though there's still the certain recorded-in-a-bathroom echo present and the speedier parts clog up a little, vocals can be a bit unclear... ok so it's not a stellar, album grade studio sound but still reasonably good for what is basically rehearsal recording. If you're into Congestion material you'll want to hear these rough versions of the songs. If you're not into their other recordings... well you're unlikely to enjoy this either, I guess.

Dysangelium - Demo I 1995

Dysangelium - Demo I 1995
1) Palace of Death
2) Unohdettu
3) Yksinäinen susi

Yandex

Haven't I seen this before? Yes, you have right here and I know I've done more than enough reposts in the last few months but once again I have a very good reason to do this. Like I wrote back in the '13 post, the rip/dub were of awful quality so when brother unholydeath obtained a copy of the demo and offered me a strictly better rip how could I not post it here? Thanks for the rip and scans! Which, by the way, are not included. I agreed with his worry about some vermin jumping to bootleg this right away so I'm afraid you are not getting them and the image posted above has been stamped with the blog logo. Thank the swindlers selling dumbasses overpriced dubs online, kids!

I had actually gotten already another rip before this one but that had some issues too so I hesitated to post it. Good thing I'm so good at prost... procrac.. I'll look that up later, delaying doing stuff, this rip is pretty much as good as it gets! The music obviously is the same as before but naturally less flawed so I suppose there's little point dwelling on that. Just grab it if you too were frustrated with the tape fails of the earlier edition. If you skipped this then for whatever reasons perhaps you should give it a go now?

Daemonium Aeturnus #2

Daemonium Aeturnus 'zine, issue 2 (1992)
Interviews:
Mortuary Drape
Immortal
Barathrum
Nocturan Demanto
Goatpenis
Thorns
Impaled Nazarene
Lullaby
+ some pictures and three (3) reviews

Reuploaded

It's been already a few months since I last posted something to read so let's do a quick fix to that with this generous donation to the Coven by comrade Kurgan, thanks! This is the second issue of the Dutch cult 'zine Daemonium Aeturnus, made by The Unsane of Bestial Summoning fame. Please note that these are scans of photocopies so the quality of images et al. might be somewhat worse than expected. Not that the issue was professionally printed in the first place. I suppose it had a red cover like the images of other issues I've seen.

This is an unprofessional, xeroxed early 90's 'zine with a simple layout, unclear photos and short, often chaotic interviews, at this point still a black metal fanzine instead of the more occult/Satanic/heretic leanings of the later issues and it is absolutely great! Honest old school 'zines are always a pleasure to read. Just don't expect very deep and informative interviews. I'd really love to see the other issues of D.A. so get in touch if you have any to offer, copies are fine too. That's enough, this is obviously recommended.

UPDATE: Fixed the typo, I can't seem to wrap my head around the name being Daemonium Aeturnus and not ...Aeternus!

Inflammation - From Holocaust promo '95

Inflammation - From Holocaust promo 1995
1) Winter Is Forever
2) In Flames
3) Funeral Horse

4shared / Mediafire

Today's item is both a request and a contribution, even more unusually from the same person, brother Baldemar. You see, he sent this rip of Czech black metal band Inflammation's December '95 promo tape in the hopes I could do something about the low sound on it. Unfortunately, I am most certainly not a sound engineer or in any other way very fluent with things like that so there was little I could accomplish. The recording favours the left speaker quite heavily and the three songs seem to vary a bit in their general volume and noisiness so I couldn't really reasonably amplify the volumes too much. However, I also tried adjusting the balance a bit to right and then further increase the sound level but this did not bring a very good result. You may check out that version here. The downloads with the original sound version include cover scans.

Now that the scene has been established and my struggle with the rather poor sound chronicled we can move to more important matters: the cover! Isn't that a cool cover picture or what? Looks pretty LLN-meets-Euronymous to me. I like this just because of that. Not to mention the rather amusing lyrics to the first song which would re-appear on their '96 demo (which is pretty good but has a bit less personality than this and much, much less awesome cover) titled I See Salvation in the Scandinavian Landscapes (the other two tracks were re-recorded and included there too), quite blatantly obsessed with Nordic bm, I'd say. And no, the second song is not about the band In Flames ...I think, hard to be 100% sure since those lyrics are in Czech which is not my strongest language. To return to the music briefly again, it's interesting. Not the most fluent and catchy sort of black metal, more like sligthly awkward, but fascinating. The sound is not really that poor but it is sort of messy and, uh, cluttered. Kinda like my apartment. I think I have to go wash the dishes now, but if you happen to have a better dub or original copy of this please send us the rip. Or let us know if it's just.. like this, I suppose. A recommended item to everyone interested in Czech black metal, excellent band photos (it's like Mütiilation but without the sad paint!) and confusing blog entries.

Dream Upon Tombs - Dream Upon Tombs demo 1997

Dream Upon Tombs - Dream Upon Tombs demo 1997
1) Black Tears Run From Crystal Eyes
2) Tamora, Moonlight Bride
3) On Tombs Borne Timeless Dreams

Mega / RGhost

Another contribution today, this Australian demo that seems quite unknown was sent to me by comrade Profoundemonium already a while ago, thank you for the contribution! Dream Upon Tombs was a two-man project by Jarrod Taylor and someone called David. P included cover scans that come with lyrics and some information.

Three songs of which two are a bit longer and the last, shortest one an instrumental. Musically I suppose this might be called romantic black metal, based on the lyrics and to a degree the rather atmospheric and melodic music. Or it might be better to just go with dark metal. The ye Olde English lyrics of the first song and the more romantic second one's would suggest fantasy themes so I guess some description monstrosity like "dark, romantic fantasy metal" could be fitting? Unfortunately the source tape seems to be a bit worn and crappy as the sound is somewhat unsteady, teetering from side to side in the beginning of the first track. Fortunately it gets better quite soon and isn't the worst example we have faced. Still bothersome. Otherwise a decent demo sound. If the description and flawy rip didn't scare you away, you might find this a quite interesting listen if you're into melodic stuff. The last instrumental song is a keyboard piece and makes me wonder if either of these guys ever had a neo-classical or dungeon synth project?

Kharadrai - III - Hexapteron demo '99

Kharadrai - III - Hexapteron demo III 1999
1) Aethera Omega
2) Beneath the Core
3) Akhomalon I (Regression)
4) Akhomalon II
5) Akhomalon III

Rusfolder / Mega

Let's chill out for one last time with Kharadrai, this is the third and final demo from '99, contributed by master Sorvali, just like the previous ones. This one was initially missing the covers so he sent me smallish images as placeholder (the one above is one of these) and then later larger images of the special edition. All included in the download. Thanks again for delivering the complete Kharadrai saga!

Musically this demo continues where we left off with the compilation track Akhomalon I and in general where the music started to progress to on the second demo: a mixture of dark ambient, industrial and neo-classical elements. Actually, Kharadrai would've fit pretty well in the Cold Meat Industry roster of the era. I said this continues where A.I left off but that's misleading as that song was much more active in nature than the first two tracks here, especially the longer Beneath the Core. Akhomalon I (Regression) is a very different thing from the compilation track, much more in line with the more... let's say contemplative mood of this demo. Things do pick up towards the end and more so on the second part, while the third one is longest and combines elements from all parts. All the tracks are instrumental this time around and that's just fine and dandy by me. An enjoyable ending chapter for this thing and obviously recommended if you enjoyed the previous tapes.

Sargoth - Mörkrets anlete demo 1995

Sargoth - Mörkrets anlete demo 1995
1) Qaa a Babalon (Intro)
2) Ur vinterns kyla
3) Barn av natt
4) Christian Blood
5) Mörkrets anlete
6) Bial a Ors (Outro)

4shared / Yandex

We haven't had Swedish material for what, two months? Can't have that and to remedy the situation here is the only demo by Sargoth from Sundsvall, dating back to '95. Sargoth was one of those bands that actually managed to do an album (Lay Eden in Ashes, '98,) but still kind of got nowhere and is hardly ever mentioned these days. Not that they would've been so well known back then either, the name popped up in many tape trader lists but I can't remember seeing them much in 'zines, compilations (maybe 1-2 appearances?) or, well, that's pretty much it. Don't know if they played live in their hometown, possibly. Some of the members also were in the even more obscure and very interesting looking band called Impious, not to be mixed with the better known one from Trollhättan. I'd certainly like to hear the two demos released by that band too.

But back to this item, which was sent by brother Grev, ripped by an associate of his and slightly edited by yours truly. Thanks to all involved, except me. Sadly, no full covers, just the front image which I think I picked up from the archives. A nice, if unremarkable, synth intro starts the demo and abruptly changes into the first "proper" track, a very melodic piece of black metal with the quite typical mid-90's Swedish sound. I might even go as far as say it sounds typical for material of the era hailing from Sundsvall. Vocals are echoing, somewhat raspy black metal shrieks, playing competent enough, tempos vary from slow parts to fast bits. The demo sound has a flaws but this might be a product of dubbing/rip to a degree. The title track has a mega annoying flaw on it that does not go on for very long but bothers the hell out of me. Otherwise fine and everything is audible enough, even the bass. It's nothing astonishing, nor super-original but works very well if taken as what it is, twenty years old demo of melodic, Swedish black metal. I sort of like it, sometimes more and other times less, but can't say it'd stay in my head for days. Worth a listen if you have an interest in melodic black metal, Swedish 90's demos or perhaps the Sundsvall scene.

I'd like a better rip or a dub of this and the '95/'96 demos of Impious so if you can help with either, get in touch!