Confusion Corporation - Purify demo 1995

Confusion Corporation - Purify demo II 1995
1) As the Brass Turns the Wall Green
2) Industrial Intellect
3) World Corruption
4) Contained
5) Forward to Extinction
6) Chains of Simplicity
7) Inorganic Beings

RGhost / Zippyshare

One more UK contribution, this was sent by brother Grev to satify my curiosity sparked by the first Confusion Corporation demo posted here earlier. Thank you and whoever originally ripped this! He did not have cover scans but I found a pretty decent image on the Discogs entry and used that. Decent quality rip at old standard bitrate (192 if you really didn't know).

A piano opens the first track, giving way to strings a bit further in. Intro piece, nice and moody, touch of neoclassical feel here and there. The piano returns to finish and next piece is much heavier then and so seems to be the overall sound, the music continuing quite logically where they left off on the previous demo. Death metal and grindcore elements mix with (sparse) industrial metal tricks and even some punk, resulting in... uh, some sort of cyber punk grind metal? Much of what I wrote last time applies here though there's a bit more of everything, notably Fear Factoryesque clean backing vocals, but it seems somewhat more focused than the previous tape. I recall my initial listen to this after Grev had sent it was somewhat unenthusiastic but hearing it now, side-by-side with the older demo it sounds much better and I'm not sure why I thought the other tape superior and this dissappointing. Now the tables would appear to have been turned. Not that much to add, it'd still fit the old Earache roster, not a big fan of the cover art, slightly better than the first tape (at least right now).

Incubus Succubus / Screaming Dead - Sampler Tape 1992

Incubus Succubus / Screaming Dead - Sampler Tape promo (?) 1992
Incubus Succubus:
1) Samhain
2) Vampyres
3) All the Devil's Men
Screaming Dead:
4) Angel of Death
5) Necroaria
6) Western Front

Mediafire / RGhost

I was initially going to post some more black metal now that we got the old engine running, but then decided to bring it to a crashing, creaking, screaming, screeching halt with a quick turn to something different: this sending picked from the things comrade Emptiness Cycle delivered me the other month. Thank you and other choice morsels will be served later! Anyways, to the British shores again and this is a split sampler tape, possibly a label promo, from '92 featuring some more pagan gothic rock by Incubus Succubus aka Inkubus Sukkubus as they are presently known (and about to release a new album this month, see here), teaming up with the fellow UK group, horror/goth punks Screaming Dead whose heyday was already in the early 80's with a short comeback in the late 90's. They were not active around the time of this tape's release so I suppose it might've been in connection to the compilation released in '93. Or just the fact that this was, after all, Tony McKormack's old band. Duh, obvious connection is obvious. No covers so I felt compelled to whip up a placeholder with band logos from '93 and '83 releases and a bat skeleton image I googled.

First version, which looks "colder" but the second accidental one looks more macabre so it won.

Yeah so if you're an Inkubus Sukkubus devotee these three tracks offer you absolutely nothing new as they're from the debut record. Unless you've managed to miss that one somehow, in case you should really get one of the various re-releases. If you're not familiar with the band, these three tracks are not at all a bad place to start, especially one of them being an old fave of mine ("Vampyres" if you must know). I like the stripped down but very clean sound here. Screaming Dead I hadn't heard earlier but am now quite interested to hear more. They've a very vintage 80's sound here, sorta post punk/wave thing going. I think the third song is a bit older than the first two. Why don't I listen to more stuff like this? I think I'm going to get that compilation from somewhere. Recommended for vampires, witches, pagans and other wave creeps.

Striid - War 2000 demo '00

Striid - War 2000 demo 2000 (original version 1999)
1) Hans siste vinter
2) Episode of Centuries I
3) Episode of Centuries II
4) Episode of Centuries III
5) Episode of Centuries IV
6) Episode of Centuries V
7) ***

Yandex / Mega

Let's get a bit more serious with another black metal contribution, this one by brother Baldemar, thank you! Striid was the solo project of the Lugubre founding member, well, Striid who released three demos under his name and this was the first of them. Metal Archives informs us this was originally titled simply "War" and released in 1999 limited to 66 copies, then re-released by Legion productions again limited to 66 copies which would be the version at hand here. Though the scans B kindly included do not match with M.A. version which looks fake and the tracklisting given there for this version is wrong too. Like the original version, this starts with the Darkthrone cover, continues with the five parts of "Episode of Centuries" and ends with a track not listed for the original version "***" which I guess would be first track "War 2000" on the M.A. listing. Perhaps there were actually two versions released on Legion after all? Or perhaps the information is just incorrect. Whatever, this is correct. The other two Striid demos were re-released on a compilation CD called "Warmageddon" back in 2003. Not sure why this one wasn't included there.

Like the cover song choice possibly indicates, Striid played raw black metal and at this phase was a one-man band. "Hans siste vinter" is performed well enough and sticking to the original formula, voice is a raw rasp, not as deliciously over the top as Nocturno Culto's performance but good enough. The original songs are in similar vein, not quite as repetitive though. Part II of "Episode" adds silly shifted vocals and neat slow parts to contrast the quicker paces. All parts have some individual quirks but still sound uniform enough to be parts of a whole. I'm trying to discern a shift in sound and performance for the last track but it really sounds like being from the same session as the rest so I must again question the entry on the Archives. Anyways, it's a short and fast one, I wonder if it'd be properly titled "War" as that title appears remixed along with the Darkthorne cover on the second demo, yet the running time does not match at all. Must remain a mystery as I do not have the other Striid demos or the compilation at hand to compare. If you enjoy raw and lo-fi sort of demo sound solo black metal (naturally with a lifeless unholy drum machine) you might want to have a listen to this tape.

Succulento Borchia - Pure Hate & Madness demo 1998

Succulento Borchia - Pure Hate & Madness demo 1998
1) March of Sorrow (allegretto ma non troppo)
2) Nuclear Law
3) Cacca Cola
4) Jubileum
5) (Glorification of) Intestinal Torment
6) Immortal Song
7) Magri Notturni
8) Sadistik Ekstermination
9) Pure Hate & Madness
10) (Glorification of) True Italian Forests
11) Godcrusher
12) Impalato Everywhere
13) Liquefatto in un cumulo di merda (Per-Version)
14) Nerchia (Per-Version)
15) Dancing with Folletti (Outro)

Mediafire / Rusfolder

Cover scans (achtung! very large!)

Back to our contributors, here is one I've forgotten to post earlier though to my defense I had to do a little further work and research into the track division, with the convenient aid of the enclosed lyric sheets our contributor comrade Chris had included (once again, huge scans - I've included them as separate download this time). So thanks to Chris again and sorry for the lateness, this was sent over a year ago after all!

Lots of tracks here but all are very short, varying between 00:49 and 2:34 in time. One would probably expect the music to be fast, thrashing or grindy or whatever but surprisingly enough this is not really the case. It ranges between quite typical black metal fare and just down strange numbers. Well, seeing their thanks list include a section where they pay respects to Marduk, Cannibal Corpse, Dark Funeral, Impaled Nazarene, Brutal Truth, Satyricon, old Carcass, Bathory, Mayhem, Ildjarn, Desekrator, Gehennah & Infernö might be helpful reference. Overall not very serious stuff, I suppose this is one of those fun projects which I can't count among my favourites. See if you're amused by their antics.

Azag-Thotch - Ritual demo 2002

Azag-Thotch - Ritual demo 2002
1) Прелюдия ночи
2) Cult of Death
3) Порывы холодного ветра
4) Преждевременное погребение
5) Реквием

Reuploaded

Recent posts have been very metal, haven't they? Let's have some belarussian dark ambient to balance that. I bought this tape pretty much on a whim and it does have sort of cool cover drawing too, does it not? Could be a black metal demo! I know little about the performers Belphegor and Sobnack, or label Wauckalack Prod., which seems to have released before this black metal; two demos by the still active Wackhanalija and a split tape of the nsbm bands Totenkopf and Hebrewdead. And a video (!) titled "The Forest" which I admit makes me very curious. At least Belphegor plays also in W and H, Sobnack probably too, under a different alias. I had to do a slight edit to the rip as the third track had a sudden burst of noise which I believe was not supposed to be there, most likely a screw up at some point of dubbing the tape, whatever the case I eliminated it. There are still some brief blippy noises in the last two tracks which I apparently did not prune off. Try to bear with them.

This is a pretty long tape, easily passing into album length. The first three tracks are in the standard 4-5 minute comfort zone while the last two are long and longer. The insert, which also provided most of what I know about Wauckalack prod's roster, describes this as dark ambient and I suppose this is the label I'll put this under. There are plenty of vocals too, as well as elements like percussion that give it a much more active nature than what most might expect from dark ambient releases. Closer to darkwave stuff at times really and some parts come close enough to dungeon synth to justify tagging that too. And to make people look. No but really, the afore-mentioned third track has that vibe aplenty and just listen to the state-of-the-art synth sound! I mentioned vocals, they're mostly whispers and black metal rasps which I find acceptable choices for this sort of music too. I'm not so wild about the first two faster and shorter bits (though the somewhat erratic pounding bits in "Cult of Death" are neat) but the dreary slower ones are more to my liking. It's another of those tapes that's both awful and awesome; terrific and terrible; ...I can't come up with a third similar pair of words... well, you know what I mean, almost equal mix of both components. Should be an interesting listen to at least part of the congregation. By the way, the first Wacky demo has quite similar sound to this, now that I've got it playing.

Bestial Summoning - Jam Session Rehearsal 1990

Bestial Summoning - Jam Session rehearsal 1990
1) Untitled I
2) Untitled II

Reuploaded

Here's a super-quick one, a contribution sent by brother Baldemar, this is the legendary Bestial Summoning of the The Netherlands and a very short two-song rehearsal from '90. They should not really need much of an introduction, just grab one of the re-releases of "The Dark War Has Begun" or "The Dark War Continues" and that should do it. Not sure of the personnel on this early recording, no covers or tracklisting so we settle with untitled unless someone can actually name these songs and a placeholder cover made from the demo cover hastily by me.

First track is a longer one, especially on BS standards while the second short one ends abruptly, possibly cuts. Music is simple and primitive black metal, mostly improvised I suppose. Perhaps a little surprisingly, clear sound with most elements audible. I suppose that really is enough for now.

Satanel - The Dark Triumphator demo 1996

Satanel - The Dark Triumphator demo 1996
1) Ascent Wisdom
2) Their Blood Shall Be Shed as Dust
3) I Am What You Awaits
4) In Evil and Sin
5) Hail to the Night
6) Diabolical Summoning

Rusfolder / Mega

Back to Europe and one of my tapes for change, I bought this demo by the Italians Satanel simply because it features personnel of Evol (Lord of Sorrow, to be specific) which I am somewhat a fanboy of. Top scientists of our day are still trying to figure out why. Well, whatever, I had no unrealistic expectations for this tape as I read quite unflattering reviews for it and obviously it was going to be quite different from Evol's very, very synth-heavy, half-ambient half-black metal style. As it's ripped from an original tape the sound is as good as it'll get, minor wear however present, and I've included the cover scans for your reading pleasure (there is quite a bit of text and it's somewhat entertaining).

The intro sounds actually like something you might encounter on an Evol recording though they tended to add vocals to these and this is instrumental. First proper track makes the point that this is black metal and of the no-nonsense aggressive sort too very quickly. I was actually slightly surprised at how tradionally metal this sounds, with barely any fruit flavour present. The congregation is still slightly divided whether guitar solos are considered fruity or not, personally I vote nay (ref. Bathord, Slayer etc.) but everyone is entitled their opinion. They're present, whatever the verdict. Vocals are mostly angry sort of gravelly barks except for the last track which opens with tolling bells, percussion and shrieks and howls that harken to Evol's "Sorrow of the Witch" to my great delight, this must be the screams Lord of Sorrow is credited on the covers for. Some unclear spoken passages there too. Aside from the first intro song, the rest are quite compact in their running times, with "I Am..." being shortest at less than two minutes and "In Sin..." and "Their Blood..." longest at nearly four minutes. The band released an EP, a split with Lord of Sorrow's other band Death Dies and two albums, none of which I've heard. Must do so, this has some nice bits. Why don't you have a listen too?