Sorg - Demo I 1995

Sorg - Demo I 1995 (?)
1) Necronomicon
2) Subtle Punishment
3) Chalice of Sin
4) Initiation
5) Für Dich
6) Chaos

Mediafire / 4shared

Let's stick to Germania a while longer. This is again a collaboration between me and comrade LKS. Well, to be honest LKS did most of the work ripping the tape and scanning the covers, I just divided it into tracks, which was quite a bit of work too! Alright, Sorg of Germany was somewhat a mystery to both of us, despite having access to the covers as they're not very informative. According to another demo, to which we return later, a man who calls himself Astaroth is apparently behind all the music and most likely instrumentation too. Looks like Metal Archives has been updated recently to mark him as the same fellow who handled bass and vocals in Fjell, we speculated this earlier but were not certain. Good to see user Uglur knew this for sure. As you see from the question mark up there the release year is uncertain, '95 is just a guess but could be '94 as well. Please confirm if you know.

Music on this demo is what I suppose should be called ambient black metal as it has enough metal elements on it to merit that sort of a monicker. Pushing it, maybe, but very gently. More like nudging or perhaps poking. Mostly slow tempo and moody material, black metal voices croaking, crooning and occasionally growling over funereal keyboards and strings (sounds like bass to me), plodding percussion, you get the idea. Lofi but clean sound, atmospheric and quite mellow on the slow long opening numbers, gets a bit silly on faster bits like Initiation. Very interesting for sure and I would need the second demo, third one we already have.

Tsatthoggua - Siegeswille demo '95

Tsatthoggua - Siegeswille demo 1995
1) The Belief - The Lie
2) Heirs of Fire
3) Niemals geboren
4) Intrude into Immortality
5) Worm of Sin

Sendspace / Depositfiles

Cover by LKS

Let's head to Germany today for change, this is a contribution by master Fenrirsson and it is the '95 demo of Tsatthoggua, formerly known as Dissection and later signed to Osmose. Thanks to F for the rip, it was a tape traded item so he did not have covers to scan, I used what I could scavenge online. UPDATE: LKS provided me with a scan of the cover xerox he had, upload link added above. Thank you!

I used to think of Tsatthoggua as kind of German version of Impaled Nazarene back in the day. I was thinking old ImpNaz, obviously. All the songs here were re-recorded for the debut album too but the demo versions sound quite different. If you're not familiar with Tsatthoggua, it's fast & ferocious black metal with a few scarce death metal touches and a bit of synth here and there. This is sounding good today, really good. Must dig up "Hosanna Bizarre" and compare to that, I've a nagging suspicion this might be superior. Did it have those background synths used here? Anyways, recommended if you enjoy this sort of racket!

Adversary - Promo '94

Adversary - Promo 1994
1) Intro: Into the Fog
2) Slave to Eternity

Yandex / Zippyshare

No-one seemed to have much to say as to what direction the next post(s) should head so I decided to slap here another old, short Israeli black metal item. Remember Dalmerot's Kingdom I posted a few years ago? Oh, actually six years ago. Time flies. Anyways, this is the pre-DK band Adversary with their very short '94 promo tape, just an intro and one song. I haven't heard the '94 demo which appears to feature versions of this material so can't make comparisons. This was, as you probably guessed already, another tape traded item and I've no idea if there was some form of cover made. Most likely not, this seems an item just dubbed to some folks they were in touch with.

The intro is a brief atmospheric synth piece, possibly (read: most likely) borrowed from some soundtrack or other, considering how different it sounds to synth on the proper recording. The main course is black metal with very, apparently typically to several other bm bands of the time and region, prominent and slightly distracting percussion, quite tastefully executed moodful synth-driven breaks and crunchy-sounding guitars. Pretty much a more primitive version of the Dalmerot's Kingdom material. The vocals are also kind of lost among other ruckus but seem your usual raspy screeches with decent enough execution. Some of the shifts feel a bit jarring and the song ends kind of... soon? Like if it was an abbreviated version. Well, at least they don't overstay their welcome. The part near the end with whispered vocals brings something to my mind but what, can't quite put my finger on it! Recommended to those dedicated to exploration of the more exotic scenes, fans of old proto-sympho black metal and obviously those who enjoy Dalmerot's Kingdom.

Grimoire - With Blackstorms We Come... promo '94

Grimoire - With Blackstorms We Come... promo October 1994
1) Conjuration
2) Beyond Eternal Nights

Mega / Rusfolder

The weather has taken a pleasant turn to slightly cooler but I still wanted to keep up with the southern summer campaign for at least a bit longer. Today we have, to counterbalance some of the recent posts, some Israeli material from my vaults. Grimoire from Herzelia was active for a few years around the mid-90's, releasing a demo, an album and this promo tape here. Their name popped up with slightly surprising frequency in fanzines and tape trader lists, considering the rather limited discography. Most of that was probably due novelty factor and I guess they were quite active with correspondence and such. I didn't have covers for this but fortunately there were pretty good scans on Discogs, thanks to user ateshu.

There are two quite long songs here and the first one was also featured on their demo "In the Darkwoods Sovreignity" which as an aside I'm not very fond of. I disliked the sound on it, guitars are way too subdued. The sound here is rougher than on the demo but also more to my liking, the instruments are in better balance and guitar more prominent, percussion less in your face. Bass is notably audible here (on the demo also). Okay, I admit the faster sections do get messy but that's a minor issue, of course your mileage may vary here. Songwriting is quite elaborate for a debut release, there are no synths here yet but several atmospheric passages which do well enough without them. Things do not always flow very fluently but that is to be expected, a few errors give demo and rehearsal recordings character. Some slightly oriental tones can be heard on the second song, but not to the extent of the album which was pretty much sympho black with Middle East melodies.

That's enough for this time, should next post continue with the theme of summer heat and southern sounds or is it time to cool down with some freezing northern noise? Or perhaps as a more neutral option something from Central(-ish) Europe? Cast your vote and it might actually matter!

Wolfhord - Realm of Pagan Storms demo '98

Wolfhord - Realm of Pagan Storms demo 12/97 (1998)
1) Winds of Battle
2) In the Forest of the Nightwolfs
3) Southern Holocaust
4) Pagan Blood
5) Ancient War Spirit

RGhost / Mediafire

Our usual Sunday chill turns south with even more Southern material bringing the heat, courtesy of comrade unholydeath again. Thanks for the rip & scan! Continuing fluently where we left off at the end of last month this is Wolfhord, another side project by Herr Wolf, here known as Warlord von Ravenclaw. Non-metal material this time, "battle stuff" as the cover says seems a neatly vague description. This is the first demo, strangely referred to as demo tape 12/97 when it was partially recorded in January '98.

Five parts, roughly 18 minutes and this "battle stuff" of his is basically somewhat lofi, but very loud and messy mind you, ambient reminiscent of LLN projects (not that much really but got your attention now) and more importantly the various folk/pagan/etc/ambient projects hailing from Poland. The first long track is basically wind samples, synth and a voice groaning/croaking a few passages over it, all in noisy, gritty texture. Second one is more winds but this time dominated by electric guitar which is joined by percussion at times, very folky or should we say volkisch melodies. This pattern repeats for the rest of the demo, all tied together by the slightly over-the-top wind noises. I must dash off now so let's wrap this up quickly; if you dig the old Polish material in similar vein or are in general a lofi dark/pagan ambient enthusiast, dungeon synth connoisseurs included, you might want to give this a shot. Be cautious of the sound though!

Rotting Christ - Promo Rehearsal '89

Rotting Christ - Promo Rehearsal 1989
1) Holyness Lamentation
2) Feast of the Grand Whore
3) Fortress of Cremation
4) De Vermis Mysteriis
5) Outro

Yandex / Sendspace

The voices tell me to continue the Southern Summer Heat Special and we move back to the end of 80's with this sending of master Fenrirsson. Certainly closer in sound and spirit to FNI than R88, this is the rehearal promo for studio demo by Rotting Christ, sent around by master Sakis in the summer of '89. In the end that demo was scrapped/re-envisioned and the result was "Satanas Tedeum" released in the fall same year. There were no proper covers for this one, just dubbed tapes with handwritten tracklistings and I didn't feel like whipping up a mock one so we're devoid of decorations today.

I've seen other rip(s) of this float around the inter nets but since Fenrirsson's rip is of decent quality and has the track divisions made unlike the other versions (which are only three tracks, lumping 1+2 and 4+5 together) I wanted to feature it. Not to mention his tape perished soon after the rip was made. Curse the frailty of cassettes! Spite! Wrath! Dissatisfaction! Right, back to music. This is a short tape, eight minutes roughly, and highly similar to how "Satanas Tedeum" turned out. Plodding abyssic black/death metal. Except when they speed up to grind speeds, for old times sakes I suppose, like on Fortress of Cremation. If you enjoy old school blackened metal of death with rehearsal sound be sure to pick this up. However, if you're only familiar with RC's more recent, bombastic output (like "Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού" the other year or the latest album "Rituals") or the melodic, quasi-gothic late mid-90's phase you might not be very pleased with the primitiveness here.

PS: Looks like they're touring quite a bit this year. Go have a look if you're nearby, I've always enjoyed seeing them perform live.

Resistencia 88 - A Nova Ordem demo '97

Resistencia 88 - A Nova Ordem demo 1997
1) Hino Ao Führer (Intro)
2) Ziklon-B
3) Orgasm of War
4) Império Facista
5) Junto a Longa Glória (Outro)

Depositfiles / Zippyshare

Once again I've overcome the madness of midsummer celebrations and it is time to resume posting. In the spirit of summer heat I decided to continue the southern contributions with another one by comrade unholydeath. Thanks as always! This one is a bit different from the previous, though the language remains same, for here we have Resistencia 88 heiling from Brazil with their only demo from 1997. They, or more accurately he (yes, another solo project), changed name to Command and released more demos and an album between '99 and '04. Our man Herr Wolf is probably best known from Evil but also plays in Ritualmurder and Hammergoat which I'm personally not familiar with.

Ok, no doubts about the ideological direction on this one as a single look at the cover art tells and the intro, a typical march sample, verifies it. The three proper tracks that follow are all raw and quite short, especially as "Orgasm of War" devotes almost a third of its running time to, you probably guessed it, a Hitler sample. Pretty sure it's him. "Império Facista" has another sample, though that's not Adolf this time I think? Anyways, that leaves the song proper at same two minutes time as the previous one. Outro is a short hymnic sample. I like the sound, it's raw and cavernous, but not at all a mess. The second track "Ziklon-B" is easily best of the bunch, having most meat around the bones and no sample attached, followed by "Império..." which is enjoyably frantic and aggressive. I don't seem to remember if I've heard any Command material or not but better fix that, this is quite good! Recommended for people into raw (ns) black metal, provided you can stand the ol' samples. I know I could do without them.