Chained And Desperate - Greaving for the Lost Sun demo 1994

Chained And Desperate - Greaving for the Lost Sun demo 1994
1) Intro: Hopeless / Chained And Desperate
2) Waterfalls
3) Greaving for the Lost Sun
4) The Eternal Darkness of Happiness

Mediafire

More death/doom and a demo I spent quite a long time searching for: the second demo (and I'd say first proper) of Chained And Desperate, whose later material I've already posted in the blog. Notice that this demo is quite different from their later (and current, I presume) material which is pagan metal close to the classic Greek black metal sound, while this one is closer to old Nightfall than Rotting Christ. Earlier this year I finally happened to find a copy of this demo, to my delight and relief since it had been eluding me for about 15 years already and this here is now a rip of that tape, naturally with cover scans. Notice that the image in the post is not the tape cover, but the cover image of the little booklet included. I was merely feeling artsy and inverted the colors and posterised it. Below is the actual cover image for the cassette.


Ok enough of my inane ramblings, is it any good and more notably worth obsessing 15 years for? Well, yes and no: it's a pretty good demo of very Greek-sounding death/doom in its own and certainly a great progression from the preceeding effort but I must honestly say I prefer the material that followed this. But I'm still very happy I managed to find this tape. I'd say the first track and the title track work best for me. Oh yeah, the sound quality is fairly good - the tape is in good shape but the sound of the demo itself is not exactly perfect. But it does well enough and of course the sound has its own charm. Recommended for fans of the band, Greek metal collectors and death/doom listeners who can stomach underground demo sound. Note also that the band has completed the recordings of their 2nd album - I'm certainly curious to hear that!

Asafated - Kaybolmuş Masumiyet (1995)

Asafated - Kaybolmuş Masumiyet CassLP 1995
1) Lost Innocense
2) Lonely
3) Violent Desires
4) Humanity Landscape
5) Goner
6) Divine Suffocation
7) 7

Reuploaded

Ok, let's do some death/doom for change: first here's the only full-lenght by the Turkish Asafated whose demo I posted earlier here. This album was released (as far as I know) only on cassette and my dub is probably from an original, courtesy of a tape trading. No covers then, so once again a M.A. image is used.

The sound is pretty good and so is the rip quality if you don't count a little flaw in the first track. The album contains the demo songs re-recorded and 3 new ones. Music is basically death metal, some tracks with doomy touches and generally more in the midtempo region. Lyrics would seem to be more at home in the death/doom category than true death metal if you know what I mean. Not a bad little album, give it a try if you liked the demo.

Black Dawn - Rehearsal 1993

Black Dawn (fin) - Eläköön Saatana! Rehearsal Tape 1993
1) Gates of Wisdom
2) Eläköön Saatana!
3) Enter the Eternal Night
4) Forever Rotting Nazarene
5) Ave Satanas
6) 13 Candles (Bathory cover)

Reuploaded

Here's an old rehearsal tape of Finnish Black Dawn, known these days as The True Black Dawn. But I've told you about them before, so let's get to the point. I got a dub of this tape, for which "Eläköön Saatana!" is an unofficial title, from comrade Grev so thanks to him again. This rehearsal tape dates somewhere between the name change (from Nocturnal Feast, not the "The True..." edit) and the "War Against Christians" demo, from which songs are present too. Style is obviously same as on the demos, sound naturally rougher as it is a rehearsal tape and some of the tracks are played differently. Interestingly a cover of Bathory's 13 Candles is included - the vocalist Cindergrin (aka Wrath)'s better known other band would also do this cover later.

Grev was worried about the sound quality of his ancient, moldy and cobweb-covered tape but I think it turned out fine. Rehearsal tapes aren't famed for crystal clear sounds in the first place and there isn't much blemish on the tape so I'd say it sounds quite good. Recommended for fans, collectors and all not too wimpy to listen to rehearsal tapes.

Strigoi Mort - Promo/demo 1996

Strigoi Mort (fin) - Promo/demo I 1996
1) Chapter One (Darkness & Despair)
2) Chapter Two (Witchcraft, Lady Lilith)

Reuploaded

Strigoi Mort was a short-lived project by Kyprian's Circle mastermind Kyprian Nurmi and as far as I know released only this one tape. Which I received, with cover scans, from comrade Grev. Thanks once again! Dubbed from his original tape to me, the sound and dub quality are good. However, the low sound volume of the original tape is quite notable. I decided against upping the volume too much as this amplifies the hissing and other "tape ambiance" too much.

Music on this short (just over 8 minutes) demo is slow and atmospheric metal, different enough from his main band to justify a separate project. The percussion is provided by a session member, other instruments and the clean-ish vocals are performed by Kyprian himself. The vocals are not the best I've heard but they do their job and the style fits the music. Recommended for fans of Kyprian's Circle and atmospheric music.

Cruachan - Live in Cork 26.03.1994

Cruachan - Live in Cork, Ireland 26th March 1994
1) Fall of Gondolin
2) Maeves' March
3) (Unknown)
4) The First Battle of Moytura
5) Scéal Na Fienna
6) Cúchulainn
7) Tir No Bréagah

Reuploaded

I'm off to see live music tonight and to celebrate that I'm posting a recording of Cruachan's 1994 gig. This performance dates between the release of their "Celtica" demo and the signing with Nazgul's Eyrie Productions who then released the debut album "Tuatha Na Gael" in Beltaine 1995. An audience recording which I got from one of my tape traders, the sound is as you might guess less than stellar. It's a bit messy at times and especially Keith's more extreme vocals bleed all over the place in some of the songs. Yet I think it's still clear enough to be enjoyed if you're a fan of early Cruachan. Dub & rip quality are as good as can be with the source material.

I didn't receive a tracklisting with this so I was forced to try to figure out the titles all by myself. Despite my valiant efforts I couldn't figure out what track 3 is - even with him introducing it after Maeves' March! I just don't understand what he says. Any corrections and identification of the third track are welcomed!

Mustan Kuun Lapset - Varjomaa demo II 1997

Mustan Kuun Lapset - Varjomaa demo II 1997
1) Intro: Isfri
2) Tuonela
3) The Dream About Dying Angel
4) I Shall Wither
5) Valkoiseen

Mediafire

Here is the second demo of the Finnish dark metal band Mustan Kuun Lapset, now unfortunately disbanded. Another dub courtesy of Grev (thanks!) and he also scanned the covers. Which didn't really come out too clear, to be honest. Well, that can't be helped, it's the music that counts anyway!

Dubbed to me from an original tape, the quality is good and so is the sound on the demo itself. The music has some black metal influences but I'd really call this dark metal or even melodic death metal. Somehow this sounds more similar to the full-lenght albums than the MCD and split that followed. I guess they sounded more black metal. Recommended if you like other MKL stuff!

Ritual (us) - Advance Tracks 1995

Ritual (us) - Rough Mix Advance Tracks 1995
1) Visions of Souls Once Lost
2) Pagan Warfare (No vocals)

Reuploaded - 2022

Here's another band with a name used by bazillion others, Ritual from California USA play black metal influenced by the Scandinavian style on these two rough mix advance tracks for their debut album. Old Black Funeral comes to my mind as well, probably due the US-origin and the Scandinavian influence. I've received these from a tape trader friend so I don't have that much info as to how much the tracks were spread or so on. I don't think they would've made any sort of cover for this.

The sound is decent, considering it is a rough mix, it's a little bit... rough. Very well audible however and sounds different enough from the album versions to merit a listen. Not the most original of usbm around, not even back then, but I still have kind of a soft spot for this little tape