Acheron - Rehearsal '89

Acheron - Rehearsal 1989
1) Jaws of Satan (Sathanas cover)
2) Dethroned Emperor (Celtic Frost cover)
3) Raise the Dead (Bathory cover)

Sampo / Depositfiles

Here's an early Acheron rehearsal, featuring three tracks which are all in essence covers, though the first one is Jaws of Satan by Sathanas, which split into Acheron and Bathym back in '88 (and reformed around '91/'92 again), so it's essentially their own song performed by their new band. In case you don't know, Acheron was and/or is a well-known and quite influential US Satanic death metal band. Or black/death, depending on the era. Ripped from a tape I traded back in the 90's, I don't think it ever had a cover as it was most likely just dubbed to some contacts.

At slightly over ten minutes this is a compact package of vintage black/death/thrash metal. The two "proper" covers are of course classic picks and they play them with vigor and enthusiasm. Quite a poor release to get to know Acheron, admittedly, as their own material does not resemble this recording much. It's still a fun listen, the sound is okay for rehearsal and packs even a bit of punch. Not much to add really, except that I actually wish it was longer, maybe add a few Death, Venom, 'Fate, Slayer etc. numbers. Now I feel like listening to old 'Frost or maybe Hellhammer.

Curse - Rehearsal 14/05/94

Curse (fin) - Rehearsal 14th May 1994
1) Infant Jesus Dead
2) Blasphemous Incantation
3) Demons Appear
4) Blasphemy
5) Ferocia Animi

4shared / Yandex

Aaaand here's the rest of the botched Curse entry, the last five tracks which actually date to 1994. This way the tracklisting starts to make sense, there are now three "new" (for the time) tracks and two familiar from the "Satanic Dominion" demo. But I've already discussed these too in the old entry so I don't feel like repeating myself all over again. Took the opportunity to adjust/update the white-on-black alternative cover I did for the '93 rehearsal to serve as placeholder for this one.

Next post should probably be something different. Or more black/death... then again I could make a few more reposts with better rips of old things?

Curse - Rehearsal 09/08/93

Curse (fin) - Rehearsal 9th August 1993
1) Infant Jesus Dead
2) Satanic Dominion
3) Disciples of Mockery

RGhost / Mediafire

Let's do this again. See the previous entry for a long description of the music, source and all that crap.

Now this makes much more sense. Three tracks, two of which appear on the debut demo recorded two months later the same year and the last one apparently only here. Oh yeah, I checked and could not find a song of that name at least on the M-A so I guess it's not a cover. Still sounds a lot like Deicide. That is all, please either download again or adjust your tags thank you~

Curse - Rehearsal 09/08/93 [incorrect!]

Curse (fin) - Rehearsal 9th August 1993
1) Infant Jesus Dead
2) Satanic Dominion
3) Disciples of Mockery
4) Infant Jesus Dead
5) Blasphemous Incantation
6) Demons Appear
7) Blasphemy
8) Ferocia Animi

Links removed as entry is incorrect.

More vintage Finnish black/death metal, or brutal black metal if you prefer, this is Curse of Finland and a rehearsal recording predating the first demo "Satanic Dominion" sent by brother Baldemar years ago, finally laid on the altar as black candles glow and the shadows crawl. I suppose he got it via trading back in the day and it has probably travelled through several decks and dwelt on multiple cassettes before ending up in B's hands. Yeah, there is tape wear and other associated flaws, but it's not too bad. There was no proper cover, or I so I think, yet I felt like whipping up a placeholder in the vein of the first demo. And then I could not decide if I should have it black on white or reversed. Went with first option to follow the look of the demos.

At first I wanted to go with this so it'd look better on the blog.

As I mentioned earlier there is wear and tear here, most notably present on the first track. It gets a bit better and generally it's a pretty good rehearsal sound. I can't help thinking this is actually two separate sessions instead of one as the sound changes quite a bit at the fourth track. Would explain why they do Infant Jesus Dead twice. Though it was something of a signature song. Maybe they took a break and adjusted the stuff to make the sound heavier and decided to re-do that song and then proceed? Anyways, this contains all three songs from "Satanic Dominion", Blasphemous Incantation which would appear on the split tape and two songs out of four from "The Black Horde" cassette EP. Disciples of Mockery would seem to be unreleased, maybe they dropped it because it sounds so much like Deicide? I think I've written enough about Curse here over the years so I'll cut this here. Recommended for fans of Curse (obviously) and old Finnish deathly black metal in general.

UPDATE: Well, brother Grev informed me that this is actually two separate rehearsals, which I kind of suspected already. First three tracks are the '93 session and the rest are from May '94. I'll make a repost with the corrected information. Yay.

Sodom - Live at Metallysee Festival 28-12-85

Sodom - Live at Metallysee Festival, Zaal Jachthoorn, Denderhoutem Belgium 28th December 1985 (received as Live 21.02.85 - it's different recording from 28.12.85 live in Aalst (?) released on Black Equinox bootleg CD which has odd tracklisting in general)
1) Outbreak of Evil
2) Witching Metal
3) Burst Command til War
4) Obsessed by Cruelty
5) Blasphemer (horribly cuts, only beginning!)

RGhost / Depositfiles

I felt, for some strange reason, like doing another thrash item and coupled with a long overdue live attendance this upcoming weekend I decided to post this horribly incomplete but ever-so-entertaining Sodom live tape from '85. I got this years and years ago from a tape trader as filler, unfortunately cut right when Blasphemer is about to kick off and being only 13+minutes long in must be even more incomplete than that. Then again, like this it could be crammed onto a 7"EP. Anyways, it was also misdated to 21st February while comparison and quick research determines this to be another recording of the Metallysee Festival gig and interestingly Setlist.fm gives the same tracklisting as my dub had! Don't know much about the event itself but apparently Blind Fury, Iron Angel and Kreator also performed.

I mentioned comparing this to something and that was the "Black Equinox" bootleg, made by the infamously inaccurate Omerta in 2004 (not 2001 like Discogs suggests, it reads on the damn cover), which I got back a few years ago from Lockjaw blog (RIP). The bootleg's tracklisting contains no less than nine tracks:
1. Outbreak of Evil
2. Deathlike Silence
3. Blasphemer
4. Equinox
5. Witching Metal
6. Burst Command til War
7. Obsessed by Cruelty
8. Witchhammer
9. Sepulchral Voice
It's also clearly a different recording, with much more audience noise and as you see the track order is either for some bizarre reason switched or it actually manages to be a different gig which just happens to have exactly same speeches in between the songs. Oh and it gives same date but as venue Aalst. It's easy to hear the order on my dub is unchanged as I chopped it into tracks without cuts so all flows together while the "Black Equinox" has very subtle cuts in between songs.

Whatever may the case be, this is classic first wave black metal Teutonic thrash hammer and extremely enjoyable despite ending way too soon. The sound is clean, songs great (including my current favourite Obsessed by Cruelty) so if you like German vintage thrash and old dirty proto black metal this is a no-brainer.

Daemon - Trial of Satan demo '91

Daemon - Trial of Satan rehearsal demo 1991
1) Intro: Merciless Night
2) Battle of Pain
3) Hysterical Moment
4) Trial of Satan

Sampo / Mediafire

Inspired by this recent, highly recommended entry of brother Emptiness Cycle at Black Metal Yesteryear I decided to get off my ass, change my planned post yet again and finally upload this rip of another, unfortunately not as good, Daemon I had made already aeons ago. So there, this is the Daemon of Brunei, started in the late 80's as Daredevil and their apparently second recording under this name. Metal Archives entry mentions a compilation of some sort was supposed to be released but looks like that hasn't happened. This is my rip from a dub I got from brother A.S. and I'll warn you right away, the sound is abysmal. No cover so we make do with the image above pilfered from the Archives.

So how dismal a sound could it be? Mucky, lopsided, too quiet (though I upped the volume a bit) and generally opaque rehearsal recording. Perhaps it wouldn't be actually bad with a bit of tampering by someone with suitable knowhow but that is not my role in this play. Or if just ripped from an original tape or first generation dub. If the compilation ever gets released I recommend picking that up, at least it cannot sound worse. Wait, of course it can if done poorly enough. Music is death/black metal in old fashioned vein but I would not really call it primitive. Main influence is cited to be old Deicide but I think this sounds a bit more... melodic? Not really, no... maybe a little heavy metal influenced then, I don't know, ask your local death metal specialists. I like how the tracklisting makes it look like a concept demo, they seem like they were chapters of a story don't you think? Despite the challenging sound I suppose seekers of the exotic artifacts will brave this crypt, others might want to think twice and head to a tavern to look for another side quest.

Dark Creation - Campaign in the Sign of Evil demo '98

Dark Creation - Campaign in the Sign of Evil demo I 1998
1) Dark Creation
2) Crosses Fire with Light
3) Sacrifice
4) Dark Horizon
5) Mighty, the Other Belief
6) Master of the Dark Eternity
7) Standing on the Steps of Hell
8) The Final Battle
9) Troops of Doom (Sepultura cover)

Yandex / RGhost

Right, we're yet again in Germany and this is one my random investments, Dark Creation and their first demo from '98 which was released by certain Iron Bonehead productions. I hadn't heard their second demo, just picked this on a whim from someone selling old tapes the other year. Cover scans are enclosed and according to them they play "witching metal" so it's safe to assume the band holds ancient Sodom in high esteem. The band, not the city.

As you can see from the tracklisting, this is an album length demo, roughly 38 minutes to be more precise. Sound is on the less-than-stellar, rough side and music is old school-ish brew of black METAL and thrash blending into traditional heavy, mostly moving in a moderate midtempo. As obligatory namedrops let's say it sounds a bit like a mix of Desaster (middle-era music with demo production) and Usurper (all eras). No, not that good really but it's a decent enough start for your imagination. Vocals mix rather poor death grunts and somewhat better harsh half-shriek/shouts. And if you enjoy shirtless, muscular men the cover pics deliver. I suppose that is enough for now, recommended if you're into this sort of ...thing. I really, really need to get some sleep.

Loathsomeness - Rehearsals Sep.2014

Loathsomeness - Rehearsals September 2014
1) Torn Apart
2) Make Them Die Slowly
3) Throat Vomica
4) Deity of Death
5) Coffins Stench
6) Strangled Barbedwire Suicide
7) Naturom Demento
8) Necrophilic Dismemberment
9) Outro - Cannibal Holocaust (Main Theme)

Depositfiles / RGhost

Ok, for tonight I've another deviation from the norm and an item that actually delayed the whole blog schedule a bit. In the end we (I did, pathetic fictional division of responsibility) went with the idea of silence gives consent which I do not generally recommend as a guideline to follow in your daily lives. Anyways, this recording by the short-lived project by certain black/death metal luminaries called Loathsomeness is a release from the recenties. Mind you it sounds like a thing unearthed from the era of late 80's / early 90's of death metal underground. Not my most comfy nor familiar scene of operations, to be honest. Nevertheless, master Suuret Muinaiset who sent me the tape is an expert and should be consulted for further references of old death metal and especially obscure and possibly not healthy heavy metal.

Right, let's get back on topic - what we have here is a set of several short but brutal and filthy death metal tracks of crude and grindy sort. Sound quality is what you may expect from a rehearsal recording. I actually find it a bit hard to say anything reasonably smart about it, can't say I'd be big fan of this kind of gory death metal. But still, the recordings provide a slightly uncomfortable, perhaps a little dumb, journey until the unlisted outro part which is from a movie far more mean spirited than the tape hopes to be. I've been told a few more tracks were recorded but apparently not much came out of them. Enough banter, you'll pick this up if interested and otherwise may await the next post.

Hecatomb - Hecatomb demo '91

Hecatomb - Hecatomb demo I 1991
1) Never Ending Terror
2) Mask Over the Sun
3) Excretion Feast
4) Eye Among the Blind
5) One by One

Rusfolder / Yandex

Isn't it about time to do some death metal again? We move another year into the past, to 1991 and travel down under with this sending by our brother Wehrwolf, further meddled with by yours truly. Hecatomb, one of the dozen or so to use the name, but only one to feature Shane Rout of Abyssic Hate fame on drums. And Brad Johnston on bass (and vocals) whom you might've encountered with Blood Duster, Samsara or Mindsnare. No? How about Mysterium I posted back in '13? That was his solo project. Anyways, this is the first demo from '91, apparently by consensus self-titled. Cover scans are also included, thanks to W.

Two... no actually three, Excretion Feast just shortened to Feast, reappear on the second demo "Deep Sleep Therapy" and as I'm just listening to it I can say they're not too different from the original versions. Sound is somewhat (not that much but the rip I'm listening is partly to blame) more refined and consistent which leads to my meddling with Wehrwolf's rip. It's not drastic, really, I just hit normalize on it and another time for the last two tracks which had disturbingly lower volume. The sound quality also changes a bit, I guess the tracks were recorded at different sessions. Doesn't say on the covers. Other than that, which has been sort of fixed, I've no issue with the quality, sound- or rip-wise. Metal Archives has this marked as Death/Black/Thrash Metal which seems a bit overkill to me, I'd just call it death metal and that's it. Tempo varies from the almost doomy opener to the short and grindy Excretion Feast, thrashy parts pop up here and there but overall it sounds heavy and cavernous. At times smothering even. I'm not really picking up much black metal emanations here and lyrics seem to range from medical horror to more abstract dark fare. Recommended for folks into good ol' fashion death metal, explorers on southern(most) voyages and archaeologists not frightened by huge spiders, crocs, bushfires, nasty heat, traps and other poisonous things.

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.

Bestial Summoning - Rehearsal 17/10/91

Bestial Summoning - Rehearsal 17th October 1991
1) Unholy Horde of the Abyss
2) Raping the Holy Virgin
3) Blaspheming the Church
4) Dark Metal
5) Demon Baptism in Hades
6) Pleasures in Sadism
7) Unholy Master
8) Sadistic Torture
9) Christ Impalement
10) Angel Rape I
11) Angel Rape II

RGhost / Mediafire

Long overdue, here is more Dutch black metal madness as promised, in the form of another rehearsal tape by the notorious cult of Bestial Summoning. This was also among the rehearsal and demo rips our brother Baldemar sent. Thank you! I hesitated to post this a little since it's been around with the same bitrate for several years, but then in the end decided to go for it. There was no cover, I just made up a placeholder with the same principle as last time.

Eleven tracks for over half an hour of music, comparable to their demo "Sodomistic Rituals" and notably all songs seem unique to this recording. At least going by the song titles (which The Unsane conveniently bellows out loud before each track) but then again they could've been easily renamed and reworked... or re-improvised? for the demo or album. The sound here is a little messier than on the '90 jam session. Generally this is similar, at least partly improvised ruckus as the rest of Bestial Summoning material, total unsane black metal filth not suited for the seekers of sophisticated black art.

Goat Emperor - Live in Sepetiba 11/06/94

Goat Emperor - Live in Sepetiba, Rio de Janeiro Brazil 11th June 1994
1) Satanic Blessing
2) Demons of Sex
3) Goat Emperor
4) Do Them What They Do for You
5) Theorems
6) The Powers of Evil

Reuploaded

Ok, Brazil as promised and since I'm off to Turku this weekend to witness the Turku Saatanalle IV-event I wanted to do a live tape for change. Goat Emperor were a black metal band with touches of death metal audible in their style which they called "Bestial Music" on their second demo, 1995's "Announcing the Neo-Aeon", dedicated to Mauro Cunha, Marcelo Motta and Aleister Crowley. Their first demo was released in '93 and called "Apopantos Kakodaimonos", featuring five proper tracks and intros/interludes. I got this and a good dub of the first demo from brother A.S. along with some other more or less exotic items the other year, thanks again! I'll need to rip the demo again, wonder if I should post it here too? There is a decent rip around so it does not seem very necessary. But back to this, good sound and I recall this was dubbed from a video. Of course no cover, I just ended up making another half-assed placeholder with the logo from the '95 demo. It'd make a nice shirt.

It's not a very long gig, possibly not complete either and whoever shot the video originally (perhaps an associate of the band?) edited it a bit so there's less of the usual breaks between. Four of the six songs are from the debut demo, Theorems appeared on the second and I don't know about the second track, could it be an unrecorded one or just re-titled? Since there are no intros, outros and interludes the songs are slightly more compact than usually. I said earlier the sound is good, but it does get a bit messy from time to time. That's only extra brutality, right? I would like a better rip of the second demo (or an actual physical copy) as the one I found online has this distracting, piercing hiss usually present back in the day on badly dubbed tapes. Of course it's possible they botched up and they're all like that, would like a confirmation if that's the case. - UPDATE: I discovered I actually have a very good dub of the second demo too, and Fenrirsson has also provided me with a rip/remix of his copy so it is no longer needed! - Ok, let's wrap this up, recommeded for people into more bestial, old schoolish sort of black metal and connoisseurs of the South American scene.

Runemagic - Fullmoon Sodomy adv. tape '92

Runemagic - Fullmoon Sodomy advance tape for EP 1992/93
1) Fullmoon Sodomy
2) Desecration of the White Christ
3) In Remembrance

Yandex / 4shared

Inspired by the advance section of the Exstinctio Sensus 'zine posted the other day I decided to do one here at the Coven too since I do have quite a few advance tapes ripped. First we have Runemagic of Sweden again, I posted their live tape just last month. See that post for crapload of background information on both the band and these recordings. Long story short, had ripped this as an unidentified tape B-side, got a revelation and remembered what it was, we're here. I've no proper cover for this version so used the Swedish tape version from M.A.

I believe this was sent as advance tape for 7"EP (the Polish bootleg version I suppose) but it is really just the demo recording with nothing done to it, except one song (Nocturnal Creation) being left out, most likely due timing constraints. Note that the Metal Archives tracklisting for the demo, or more like the song lengths therein, are incorrect. The source tape must've been this same which makes me wonder if the demo was ever actually released complete? That tracklisting divides In Remembrance into two and tries to pass off its second, keyboard part as Nocturnal Creation which as we learn from the quite recent Bandcamp release is actually 7+ minute song. Or perhaps the contributor had a dub of this and cover of the Chaos Productions version which was complete but circulated less? Who knows, I don't. Old era Runemagic in general seems to be more unknown than I expected.

This was supposed to be short but seems like this band drives me to ramble more than usual. Ok, contents quickly: sound is pretty murky but definitely much cleaner than the live tape, a little stuffy and with prominent low end. A lot of it has to do with tape wear obviously. Title track is a long one, over seven and half minutes, bouncy brisk midtempo effort with some breaks and changes in pace. Very good black metal rasp, grating and drawling at appropriate times. Robert "Reaper" Pehrsson was also responsible for the vocals on the first two Deathwitch albums as well as presently in Death Breath and some other projects in very different vein. I'm digressing again!!! Ugh, yeah so Desecration of the White Christ is a fast paced, shorter song in old school black metal vein and was reused for Deathwitch later and In Remembrance is another shortish piece divided into two parts; slower and epic metal half and a synth part that reminds me of vintage horror movies. Good stuff and I really like his voice, I just wish I had a slightly better rip or even better the Chaos Prods tape itself. If you have it, get in touch, rich rewards await. And I want the rehearsal tapes too. Very much recommended!

Runemagic - NecroLive Uddevalla 1992

Runemagic - NecroLive Uddevalla, Sweden 1992
1) Necro Metal
2) Fullmoon Sodomy
3) Desecration
4) Nocturnal Creation
5) In Remembrance

Mediafire / RGhost

This year is coming to an end. An era ended on the 28th of this month. I'm out of beer. Inspired by these feelings I felt a need to finish some outstanding projects left to lie in my notorious WIP folder and actually have gotten results. Here's one, a live tape by the Swedish (then) black metal band Runemagic, much better known from their second incarnation as Runemagick from '97 onwards. The "k" makes all the difference does it not? Also, going to play full on dark death metal before it got fashionable again was probably a more notable factor. However, first era Runemagic was black metal, with death metal touches sure but black metal still. I guess this was a more or less official live tape, recorded in their hometown. Unfortunately I have no covers and probably whoever did the Metal Archives entry didn't have either as the tracklisting was somewhat off, above should be correct. Would love a full scan if possible.

Why was this lying around unfinished for long, long time? Because of the rather challenging tracklisting and lack of material to compare to. I had misplaced my "Fullmoon Symphony" dub but fortunately identified it as an untitled B-side of a cassette I recently ripped so I got a kick to start sorting this out. If you remember the earlier "Runemagic" post here I'm now quite sure that is not the same band as it sounds almost completely different to other old material and actually everything else the guys involved had recorded (Deathwitch, who reused some old Runemagic material most notably track 3 here on their second album "Dawn of Armageddon" as Desecration of the White Christ which is the proper title anyways, Swordmaster, Sacramentum) or would record (The Funeral Orchestra, Necrocurse, Death Breath, Robert Pehrsson's Humbucker etc etc...). It would be really nice to know if there actually was another band called Runemagic (not very likely but possible), or if it was a band named something different but close enough to cause a mistake (slightly likely) or if it in the end was the same guys' unmentioned and/or -released demo (highly unlikely!).

Back to this item, the first track here was not that hard to identify as they scream the title aloud several times, the erronous Metal Archives listing has it as last track and "Runemagick - Necro Metal" which quite obviously carried over from someone's rip having been in the artist - song title format. Sloppy! The full title on "Alcoholic Rehearsal" of '91 was Dark Necro Metal. That rehearsal's tracklisting makes it seem a long song, over 5 minutes but this version here is just a quick burst not two minutes long so I went with the shortened title (I actually forgot to change the titles). Live versions may differ quite a lot (looking at you Mayhem and too short Pure Fucking Armageddons!) so that is not too surprising. Second track is easy enough if you have the demo of the same name and third one too. Fourth song was a bastard to figure out, especially as it was not on the most (? source? need to verify) versions of the demo. Fortunately he introduces the song in the beginning but unfortunately they somehow mess up or whatever else happens and it extends to an over ten minutes version with an awkward break in the middle. They don't quite restart it either so for a time I was under the impression it would be two separate tracks and tried hard to identify the second part unsuccessfully. After finally noticing their bandcamp had a remastered demo version up I confirmed it to same song. I originally intended to split it into two parts Noctunal Creation I & II but then decided against that. Last song was again a walk in the park. So there, not so easy, especially when I originally ripped it from a tape that had absolutely nothing written on it.

Fascinating tale of first world problems but how about the music? Getting there, this is old schoolish black metal with some death metal influences which I said in the very beginning but you might've already forgotten, has certain groove present that gives it personality, vocals screamy and good. Sound's not very good, elements get quite buried and somewhat messy but it's still listenable for the fearless relic hunter. Obviously not a soundboard recording, perhaps someone shot this on video and this is the audio of it? I still love it, old Runemagic has definite charm to it. I need the rehearsal tapes and you need to download this.

Souls Crematorium - Pre-Demo '93

Souls Crematorium - Pre-demo '93
1) Before the Life Over
2) After Day
3) Terror Diminish
4) Impossible Rehabilitation
5) Until the End of Life

Mega / Zippyshare

One more from an exotic locale (from my point of view) and an obscure death metal offering for change, this was sent by brother Baldemar and it is the only release by Mexico's Souls Crematorium. "Pre-demo" suggests this wasn't probably considered a proper demo but rather an advance version or a promo perhaps. Whatever the intention was, this came to be their only demo (unless they recorded something before this that B. did not mention) as the band split up quite soon after its release, Edgar Garcia and Guillermo Garfias teaming up with Antimo Buonnano to form Disgorge. The guitarist Samuel Olvera joined later another local band Piraña, also still active. Besides Disgorge, Edgar is a member of Putrefact and Hell Execution plus has played or plays live with among others Thornspawn, Funereal Moon, Hacavitz, Morbosidad and Impiety. Baldemar included a scan of the xeroxed cover as well, thanks again for your work!

Music is death metal, of the slightly slower variety with long-ish tracks that have enough variation within to remain interesting while still managing to avoid overtly complex wankery. Second song is a shorter instrumental one which further spices things up. The sound is pretty rough, probably recorded at their rehearsal place. Certain elements get somewhat messy but you should still be able to distinguish all instruments and I think it has more character with an unpolished sound like this. That background research/exposition on the first paragraph sort of wore me out so I'm not going to drop names as heavily here, not to mention my very limited death metal expertise preventing more interesting comparisons. Let's just say that if you like rough old death metal and vintage South American sounds you might dig this.

Behemoth - Remembrance of the Crucification demo 1992

Behemoth (sgp) - Remembrance of the Crucification demo 1992
1) Remembrance of the Crucification
2) Evil Lord
3) Cursed of God
4) Lord of All Gods
5) Doomsday
6) Church of Ghouls
7) Bastard Christ
8) Bleed Upon the Altars

Depositfiles / Yandex

One more from Asia and going back a bit, this is another Singapore kvlt with a familiar name, Behemoth, with their only(?) demo from 1992. Like several of their countrymen and Malaysian neighbours, Behemoth played pretty raw sort of black/death metal possibly and probably influenced by the likes of Sarcófago, old Mayhem, Hellhammer, Samael, Blasphemy, Beherit etc as well as their senpais Abhorer, Sexfago and Nuctemeron. That was a lot of names. Let's drop another, this was send by comrade Nefarious, thank you! He sent the cover scans as well, I suppose the dirty greyish image on M.A. is a xerox of the original red we have here. Or they might have run out of red paper at some point?

Eight tracks makes this look like it could be a full album but they're all quite short so the total run time is just short of 23 minutes. Almost exactly the opposite of the second Blood Angel demo that has four tracks for almost 47 minutes (you should check that band out too)! The title track is an intro, Nefarious had left it and the second track together as they blend into each other in a tricky manner but I saw fit to meddle again and separated them. Quite good sound, loud and clear enough, though it wavers a little which might be due tape wear. I like the crispy yet heavy sound the guitar has. Songs are mostly fast but have breaks and changes enough to keep them from being too linear and boring yet still remain simple and fluent enough for me to enjoy. Vocals are brutal growls and barks, executed with enough ill will to not sound monotonous. Wild solos flutter all around the park, bass can be heard and some mistakes are easy to spot but that's extra charm points for me. Great stuff, wonder when NWN! or someone is going to rerelease this. Recommended!

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.

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.

Blasphemy / Beherit / Samael - Live Split (bootleg '92)

Blasphemy / Beherit / Samael - Live Split bootleg tape 1992
Blasphemy (live in Vancouver '89):
1) Intro
2) Weltering in Blood
3) Demoniac
4) War Command
5) Blasphemous Attack
6) Fallen Angel of Doom
7) Goddess of Perversity
8) Nocturnal Slayer
9) Darkness Prevails
10) Desecration
11) Ritual
Beherit (live in Finland '91):
12) Intro
13) The Oath of Black Blood
14) War Command (Blasphemy cover)
15) Intro II
16) Hail Sathanas
17) Satanas (Sarcófago cover)
18) Witchcraft
19) Paradise, of Thy Demonic Host
20) Beast of Damnation
21) Demoniac (Blasphemy cover)
Samael (live in Switzerland '90):
22) Messenger of the Light
23) The Dark
24) Into the Pentagram
25) Knowledge of the Ancient Kingdom
26) Morbid Metal
27) Worship Him

Zippyshare / Mediafire

Looks like I didn't have as much time as I thought to post stuff before the festival - I'm leaving for Helsinki Thursday morning - so this'll be last before I return. Might as well make it another big one, here is a three-way split live bootleg tape released back in 1992. I believe most will recognize the performers here? Blasphemy was obviously the headliner for the first Black Flames of Blasphemy back in '09, there's the connection. Their part was recorded in Vancouver '89 and features most of the songs they did on the demo and debut album. Sounds messy but listenable enough, you can tell what's going on relatively easy. "Goddess of Perversity" is incomplete, there's a dropout unfortunately. The recording sounds a little different from there on, perhaps whoever recorded this moved a bit causing the missing bit?

Beherit have sadly not performed live during their apparently short-lived(?) reunion since the release of Engram in 2009. Their part here was recorded in Finland in '91 at unspecified location, most of their live performances took place that year. Sound is pretty abrasive, much noisier than Blasphemy's part and quite challenging to enjoy. Vocals degenerate especially badly, "Hail Sathanas" sounds just ridiculous. I wonder how people who ordered this tape back in the day for Beherit felt? Samael play nowadays forgettable semi-industrial metal and if their performance the other year at Jalometalli was an indicator, I'm happy they haven't been taking up slots at other events I've attended. However, their black metal era was excellent and this set is no exception. "Messenger of the Light" starts somewhere well into the song, missing more than half. That's more or less the only gripe I have about their part, recording sounds decent enough (especially compared to Beherit) and performance is fine. I should really go to bed so I'm not going to write anything else, grab this if you're a fan of the bands AND fond of bootleg tapes with "special" sound.

Lamentation - Prophecies demo 1991

Lamentation [bra] - Prophecies demo 1991
1) Intro
2) Dark Prophecy

RGhost / Mega

Did you come here hoping for something by the Greek Lamentation? Too bad, that's not on the menu today. This is the Brazilian Lamentation, mentioned here and apparently this demo was originally released in December '90 under the Bestial monicker and then again under the new name in '91. Besides this recording in two versions there is a Bestial live demo also dating to '90 and except for possible rehearsal tapes nothing else which is a bit of a bummer as I really dig Luis "Zoca or Apocalyptic Preacher" Fernando's sound. I'd really like to get my hands on that live demo so let me know if you have it. Not to mention the hypothetical rehearsal tapes. Cover scan taken from the Metal Archives.

I got this short demo dubbed with a bunch of other more-or-less exotic black metal items a few years ago and hesitated a long time to upload it as the dub quality was, to put it politely, shit. Low volume and absolutely massive hiss, you know the sort. Then, after finally just deciding to go with it, I discovered I had already picked up a vastly superior rip of this online. It'd appear to be the rip posted originally by user macchipazzi in '08 and re-posted '10 by user name Okkultis on the MetalArea forum. Well, good job wasting a surprisingly large amount of time on a very short tape, me. Idiot. Right, anyhow this might seem like a pointless repost then but since I really wanted to do this one, I've uploaded the MA rip and included for your listening displeasure the extremely poor quality rip I made of the billionth generation dub in my possession. Plus it kinda fits nicely after the Fiendish Nymph demo, they've a lot in common you know! Mainly the whispery vocals and slowish pace. Perhaps the sound too. Slightly. And both are very short. Come from warm climates. Recommended to people who liked the Abygor demo, (old) Black Crucifixion, Fiendish Nymph and "Drawing Down the Moon" ...wait everyone likes that, uh, let's day Darkstyle.