Funeral Rites - Promo '97

Funeral Rites - Promo '97
1) Weird Tales
2) Moonlight December
3) At the Warend
4) Crucifix

RGhost / Mediafire

Another Asian item today, this is Funeral Rites from Osaka, Japan and their third tape from 1997 simply called "promo '97" though Metal Archives lists it also under "Weird Tales" name. Hard to say for sure since I don't have covers and haven't seen full scans, but my tape trader had named it promo '97, would not be first time a release gets an additional name later. Maybe someone will eventually provide full cover scan that confirms the actual title. I recall this was also released as a MCD in '98 but don't seem to find confirmation online for this. Perhaps that version was called "Weird Tales" and it stuck for the tape too?

Well, whatever the case maybe I'm 100% sure both '97 entries on MA refer to this same recording. There are four songs here, first one being practically instrumental and third one fully so, both interestingly enough reappearing on their only album "Necroeater" released in 2000 by Nederlands' Painkiller records. I'm sure Hellhammer/Frost have been an influence on the guys, apparent both on their visual aesthetics (judging from the demo covers), song titles and to a degree on the music too which alternates between old schoolish, pounding, thrashing black metal and again oldish more melodic and epic black metal with light and effective touches of keyboards in places. The demo has a loud, noisy sound with a notable amount of distorted bass not so much as bleeding as cumming all over everything. It's a little jarring at first until you get adjusted to it and I recall being initially quite dissappointed with the album which sounded much milder or tame in comparison when it came out. Of course I can't seem to find the damn disc now to compare. I would really like to hear the '96 demos too, I think I had a pretty poor rip of either one somewhere but that also refuses to be found. Anyways, I dig this and you should give it a chance if you enjoy your black metal, uh, metal.

Damaq - Whisper of the Night Winds demo 1998

Damaq - Whisper of the Night Winds demo 1998
1) Whisper of the Night Winds
2) Astaruti Azla Nian
3) The Last Wrath
4) Upon Us Beyond the Red Dawn
5) Outro

REUPLOADED

Enough Finland for now, I have a craving for something more exotic! Enter Damaq, hailing from (West) Malaysia with their sole '98 demo sent to me with various other items by Nefarious. Thanks for your contributions! We're still in need of several old demos of the region, see the side panel, as well as 'zines which I added there. Personally I'm interested in all old 'zines from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and so on so feel free to offer 'em. Written in English, though. A cover scan is enclosed and I have to say it doesn't look very black metal to me. I'm more reminded of a slightly older book cover, perhaps in the genre of romance with just a touch of adventure, enough to titillate a maiden heart?

Despite the feelings evoked it is black metal the guys play here. Their music is moderately fast and melodic and despite being recorded in a studio (that's what the cover says) the sound is quite uneven, with the vocals very high on the mix and due the rip being just a bit too loud they overpower and drown out the rest while sounding broken, especially noticeable on the first track. They're less intrusive on the second song and actually at times drown in the music. Perhaps they recorded it live and the vocalist is inexperienced. The music isn't bad at all but the unevenness makes the experience more troublesome than it should be. As an interesting detail the "outro" here is an instrumental version of the second song. It appears the band has reactivated recently and put out an album in 2014. I should get that. Meanwhile, recommended to people into melodic black metal, fans of Malaysian scene and consumers of romance novels who are probably going to be very surprised if they're gullible enough to fall for this recommendation.

Mehazaer - Lucifer rehearsal 1992

Mehazaer - Lucifer rehearsal tape 1992
1) Cross of Blood
2) Ripped to Pieces
3) Reckoning Day
4) Fall of Man (cuts!)

Sendspace / Yandex

Let's do another Finnish post, inspired by The Nocturnal 'zine I decided to post the '92 rehearsal tape by Oulu's Mehazaer dubbed me last year or so by brother Grev, thank you! Unfortunately his dub was incomplete; the last track cuts and probably quite a lot too unless it was short to begin with. Alas, it appears this tape isn't that easy to come by as I remember seeing Mehazaer hardly ever in tradelists back in the 90's. Of course, that proves nothing about how much it was spread. I think this might be their only release as well, the interview in TNz2 mentions they were going to go to record their debut demo "soon" but no idea if this actually ever happened. They did at least five gigs too and I'm sure someone recorded at least one of them, so that might be a possibility to hear further material. Get in touch if you have a complete version of this or anything else!

My interest in this band back whenever sparked from a mention in some Impaled Nazarene interview, if I remember correctly, and the name was unusual enough to stick to mind. Funny how long it took for me to actually hear them. Yet again. So, was it worth the roughly twenty years wait? Not really to be honest. Five, ten years maybe. This is a rehearsal tape with pretty muddy sound, some hiss and it favours the right channel quite notably which is a bit distracting when listening with headphones (my default mode). It's not really too bad though, I should not complain when I listen to much worse sounds without blinking an eye. Music is pretty much just plain old death metal here but I suppose I can call it black/death metal since they did consider themselves a black metal metal band. The tempo ranges from mid to faster pace and it's mostly quite fluently flowing stuff without too many tricks and gimmicks to distract and bother grumpy folks such as myself. I would still want to hear the full version and the "Madaritza torezodu" demo if it ever got recorded or, well, anything anyone might have since I still find myself oddly fascinated with the band. Recommended for those who enjoy delving into the old catacombs of Finnish underground, Oulu-enthusiasts, old death metal fans or fans of old death metal and naturally those who got curious reading TNz2.

Zines in Finnish

The Nocturnal 'zine, issue 2 (April 1994)
Interviews:
Soulgrind
Misery
Curse
Mehazaer
Decoryah
Denial of God
M.M.I. Records
Black Dawn
Slayer 'zine / Head Not Found
Pax Mortis
Sceptical Schizo
Mystification
Hammer of Damnation
Articles:
Necrospiritual
Cerebrum
Salome
Morningstar
+ reviews, gig report

Mediafire

Apocryphal 'zine, issue 1 (1998)
Interviews:
Thyrane
Warloghe
Alghazanth
Unhola
+ Helwetti article, live review Easter Holocaust '98, demo reviews and news

Mega

Today is again Finnish independence day and this year I decided to use it as an excuse to post a pair of 'zines I've scanned written in Finnish so my apologies to our foreign friends. But at least both have pictures to look at if you are still curious enough to download them!

I was wondering if I should write the blog entry in Finnish too but since I've used English this far let's stick to that. Ok, so first one is the second and last issue of The Nocturnal 'zine made by messieurs Poskiparta (of Necrobiosis fame) and Rouhiainen, featuring cover art by Juha Vuorma and contributions by Ari "Sinister Satyr" Honkonen (Metalion interview & Morningstar article/bio) and Oliver Kraupa (live review of Impaled Nazarene / Ancient Rites gig). I borrowed this one from comrade passetiermes, thanks again! Dating to early '94 it is a more nostalgic and pleasant time capsule of the two for me personally, plus it features some more seldom seen bands. The professionalism and informative level might not be the highest though, but like I always say, amateurish 'zines are the best. Browsing through this reminds me I should get a hold of more Mystification (FF) material.

Second 'zine is the first issue of Apocryphal, also made by two gentlemen Jääskeläinen & Kaakkolahti from Leppävesi and in conspiracy with Volante's Artwork Prod. which explains the much fancier look this one has. I have no idea whether more issues were made as by the end of the century I bought less and less 'zines (and more and more booze - wonder if there's a connection?) but they do claim to have plans made for a second issue in the editorial. Right, this is a black metal 'zine, long interviews all of them which explains the smallish number and it was also released in A5 format which would be the other reason. Plus they botched something with the layout so there's a blank page (both sides even) which I faithfully scanned. Several pages of demo reviews as well. Where The Nocturnal 'zine editors joked and fooled around these lads are very serious all around. Trivia: I attended the '98 Easter Holocaust tour at Kuopio (I'm sure they did it at least twice, if not three times?) where it was held at the much smaller venue Valhalla metal bar. I wonder where else the tour went, I think it was like 3-4 places? As I seem to be starting to digress rather badly I suppose I should quit here. Recommended for the Finnish readers and to those who are learning the language. Not for the grammar though.

Putrefaction #5

Putrefaction 'zine, issue 5 (August 1991)
Interviews:
Bolt Thrower
Torturer
Demigod
Therion
Atomic Aggressor
Carbonized
Morbid Angel
Malaphar
Traumatic
Salem
At the Gates
Interment
Sentenced
Merciless
Shub-Niggurath
Misery
Infested Incarnation (guys who made stickers!?)
Infamy (Florida)
Obscure (Spain)
Dark Tranquillity
Baphomet
Agressor
Sadist
Macabre End
Samael
Sadus
Immortal
Death Courier
Impaler
Unleashed
Articles:
Dissection
Repugnance
Marduk
+ 'zine reviews

Depositfiles

Today's offering is an old 'zine again, a classic from the death metal underground, this is the 5th issue of Sweden's Putrefaction made by Tomas known later for No Fashion records. Thanks to Pawel for scanning this! Pdf-format and very clean & clear work, would be easy to read if not for the slightly messy archaic lay out. Which is naturally 110% cooler than late 90's posh computer stuff.

As you can see, there are loads and loads of interviews and no reviews (apparently Putrefaction didn't do these, this is the only issue I've seen so not sure) except for a page with couple of 'zines plus as exceptions he does review tapes of Sentenced and Shub-Niggurath after their interviews. Speaking of which, there are plenty of them but most are quite short and several are just plain bad and uninteresting or uninformative. Worst offenders here hailing from the States, with absolutely shit interview with Trey of Morbid Angel, short and boring one with Baphomet and much better than the previous but still lackluster Sadus. Misery from Switzerland takes the cake for Euro interviewees. Most interesting ones are probably the ones featuring new and upcoming bands At the Gates, Immortal and Dark Tranquillity. Merciless one is among the longest ones but almost completely gets out of hand with nonsense. Well, at least they had fun. Despite the minor complaining there is a lot to read, especially if you're into old death metal scene but personally most value here is nostalgic.

Alpheratz - Egregorian Oath demo 1996

Alpheratz - Egregorian Oath demo 1996
1) In the Beggining
2) All Was Everlasting
3) To Feel the Inossence Passion
4) Stillness
5) Septentrional Abiss
6) Infinity Sad
7) A Gloomy Remembrance

Yandex / Zippyshare

I thought we might chill today with another contribution, this is Alpheratz who hail from Mexico and released this one demo tape on Sempiternal Sadness before fading away again. Thanks to the contributor, who unfortunately did not have covers to send but I did borrow serviceable ones from Metal Archives and the Demo Archives II. Alpheratz played "black funeral music" (not sure if actual label description) or "ocult & black ambients" (their own words) which would be a mixture of dark ambient and darkwave sounds with slow, atmospheric black metal. A bit like proto-dsbm actually.

This tape was somehow familiar to me before receiving the contribution but I'm no longer sure where I recall this from, some old 'zine most likely or perhaps flyers. I'm positive I hadn't heard it before, though. It's pretty long, more than half an hour, and has a decent enough sound, if a bit sparse. That gives it a nice roomy, almost airy feel though. The first short song serves as an intro and is followed by a longer track that is characterized by a plodding tempo, buzzing distorted guitars, spaced-out keyboards and viciously grating, raspy black metal main vocals. Some clean vocals provide support but are enough in the background as not to disturb me. Next track which also is the longest adds what I'm quite sure are female session vocals or perhaps the guy has a really wide range? It's also slightly more upbeat and has sort of wavey feel to it. I like the buzzing, wavering guitars which sound like they might collapse any moment. The somewhat abrupt switches also amuse me here more than annoy. Not to mention the trippy synths and obvious drum machine. "Stillness" seems to combine animal husbandry with quasi-gregorian moods which is pretty goofy, as is the later part of the song too. "Infinity Sad" features some crazy keyboard sounds that are practically random. There is certain clumsy charm to this again and I find myself enjoying the recording, possibly more than I actually should. It does feel a little longer than necessary, I admit. Recommended to the friends of the curious and exotic.

Bleed Me Tears - Bedimmed Grey demo 1997

Bleed Me Tears - Bedimmed Grey demo 1997
1) Bedimmed Grey
2) The Soothsayer
3) Of Dream and Reality

RGhost / 4shared / Sendspace

Today's post also has a very, very slight connection with the BFoB festival, it is a request made last June by an anonymous commentor on this post where I was able to provide a little information (with assistance of brother Grev) and kind of left the rest for the future. By chance while we were drinking beer and falling into Mysticum psychosis / Xibalba ("they're the Darkthrone of Mexico!") mania at brother Suuret Muinaiset's place I spotted this in one of his cassette boxes, remembered the discussion about it and borrowed the tape. So thanks to SM, I've now scanned and ripped the '97 demo by Helsinki melodeath band Bleed Me Tears. I suppose I'll return it... next year or so, maybe at Profanatica?

Grev described this, in a rather unenthusiastic manner, as "more melodic death metal" in the Gothony comments and Suuret Muinaiset wasn't exactly thrilled about the demo either so I braced myself for the initial listen. As expected, typical for the era melodeath metal, less all over the place than Gothony was and with longer songs. More straightforward, easier to listen approach and I now find myself thinking this actually sounds a bit Swedic to my ears. Main vocals are a raspy half-roar found often in the genre, ok but not outstanding or very distinct in either way. Unfortunately they also feel necessary to employ half-assed clean vocals which pretty much ruin the second song. Good studio sound, it was recorded with Hiili after all in the M.D. studios. I find myself not coming up with much to say, as I've probably made already clear this is not my field of expertise. Well, the samples (?) in between the songs are mildly amusing and make me want to listen to Karjalan Sissit. Recommended to people into old Nordic melodeath and collectors of somewhat obscure Finnish demo recordings.