Pre-Profanatica

Before we were blessed with Profanatica and Havohej, Paul Ledney got together with guitarist John Gelso and formed the death/black metal crossover Toten in 1987. They released 2 demo tapes, Dreary Proximity (usually called the Misery demo) in 1987 and Macabre in 1988 (Macabre also included bassist Alex Gabriel). While the original master recordings were lost, someone had the good sense to transfer their first-generation cassette copies to CDr and we can now forever relish the lo-fi glory of Toten's early recordings. Fans of Ledney's later work will get a kick out of hearing an embryonic version of "...Of Pestilence" - and "Macabre" is definite shades of Profanatica's "Scourging And Crowning." Wicked fast double bass blast beats behind a über-gained treble fuzz guitar and guttural black vomit vocals. While I'm at it, pretty much everything Toten did sounds like a song Profanatica would have made (or just did in some other form) - good rudimentary black metal from the frosty woods of New England to micturate a Bible to. Enjoy.

Blasphemy

Those crazy Nutmeggers

Here's a sold 16-minute live set from Connecticut black metallers Profanatica. Recorded at the defunct underground haven G. Willikers in Pennsauken, NJ, the band tears through five of their most blasphemous classics with typical Jesus-hating panache. I'm pretty sure this gig did not show up on their obscure Live CD from 2001 - I actually ripped it from some bootleg DVD I got of the band ages ago. Interestingly, the DVD also has a pretty thorough interview with Paul and his cronies that ends with Ledney pissing in a glass and gargling it while he torches a bible (and extinguishes it with said urine). Sorry to all but I unfortunately didn't have time to rip that as well. Next time... next time...

1991

I Vomit On God's Child

While I've never been wicked (ha!) into black metal, the band Profanatica was one of those rare diamonds in the rough and I was pretty disappointed when they broke up before ever really getting it together. In comes Paul Ledney's one-man band Havohej to fill the void; Profanatica's ex-drummer/singer re-recorded many of the band's tracks with production A LOT better then most black metal albums (later Havohej releases included). Yep, there's no annoying analog tape/drum machine/whatever hiss throughout the recording, it's clean, tight and evil; a great album chock full of brilliant blasphemy. Profanatica has since reformed, Havohej has gone on to release other albums but I gotta say Ledney was at his peak in 1993.

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