Lunar Womb - The Sleeping Green demo III 1999

Lunar Womb - The Sleeping Green unreleased demo III 1999
1) The Sleeping
2) The Awakening
3) Through Ages
4) Öinen matkaaja
5) Vaipuminen

Yandex / Sendspace
Bandcamp

Alright, I promised a special post and here it finally is, after ~17 years, the third Lunar Womb demo. Master Sorvali sent me this just a few days ago after I once again pestered encouraged him to get it finished. Well, all he really had left was to do last touches to the covers, if you can speak of such with a digital release, so it was (surprisingly) quickly completed. Thank you again for agreeing to share this recording with us! It should be vigorously emphasized that everything was made in '98 - '99 and remastered last year, so I'll repeat Henri's words from the cover:

"The Sleeping Green was originally intended to be released as a cassette demo in 1999, but due to personal and artistic reasons it was never published.

It describes my deepest respect for the nature, the Finnish vast landscapes and beliefs age-old wrapped into a musical form.

The recordings were found from my personal archives in 2015 and carefully remastered from the original tracks afterwards. All the song-titles and artwork was inteded for the original release and while nothing in this release is matching the quality standards of 2016, I hope the music will take you where it took me over fifteen years ago as well... where I still dwell."

Illustrations for each of the tracks, art by Rudolf Koivu.

As you see, this one has the most songs out of the three but they're generally shorter (compared to the other demos, that is!) so the total running time is slightly over 34 minutes. The music here is more consistent than on the preceeding demos and clearly a concept work instead of a compilation of tracks, while the individual songs still have their own character. Compared to "The Astral Grief" the sound is more refined, part due the remastering I assume and music is generally more varying, complex and sophisticated. It has, depending on the track, both soundtrack-like and neoclassical qualities as well as trollish dungeon synth moments surrounded by an overall folkloric, national romantic feel. Fits very well with the artwork borrowed from Rudolf Koivu. Some sound effects and vocals are used, first one more liberally but not overbearingly and second one very sparingly which matches my policy and tastes.

Was it worth the wait then? Yes. The moods are generally more light, wistful and nostalgic rather than dark, moody or warlike and there is a certain sense of wonder present. Beautiful stuff and essential to any fan of Henri's work and generally recommended if this sort of music appeals to you at all.

UPDATE: Henri has also made it available at "name-your-price" option, lossless files, at his bandcamp page. So if you feel like supporting, scurry over there and throw your currency at screen when prompted!

Lunar Womb - Planets demo I 1996

Lunar Womb - Planets demo I 1996
1) The Labyrinths of Ktonor
2) As the Winter Comes...
3) Night Towers

Mediafire / Rusfolder

Hollow Myths

Sunday's chill out zone strikes back. And here is the much discussed first Lunar Womb demo, recorded with the slightly larger line-up of both Sorvali cousins and featuring Kharadrai who provides the lyrics and voice on the first track. My thanks to Henu for sharing this after a bit of hesitation, you did the right thing as there are plenty of people out there who wanted to hear this. Cover scans enclosed.

I've warned a few times that this is a very different entity from the second demo. If you look at the big picture you could say they're more under the same umbrella of ambient music but this is a bit more ...unrefined gathering of experiments. The first track is really, really long and very repetitive as well as the only one to have lyrics, like earlier mentioned, and vocals which (fortunately in my opinion) are quite sunken in the background. Despite going on for far longer than necessary (over twenty minutes) it's sort of grown on me and brings about a certain dreamlike state. Or I might've dozed off for a bit. Second song is shorter and more in the traditional instrumental interlude or even dungeon synth field, with some folkish touches and a hefty serving of repetition. Nice. Third song is again a long one and it's a quite minimalistic ambient piece that seems somewhat monotonous at first but has more subtly going on than seemed. Not bad at all once you get over the possible initial "shock" and expectations the second demo might have set up. Recommended for friends of ambient music, collectors of Meat Hook Prods stuff and other curious passers-by. Next will be metal. Or something different.

UPDATE: Discovered, to my slight surprise, that Hollow Myths of USA had released a CD compiling this and "The Astral Grief" - I can't say anything definite about the release itself but looks promising. Apparently both were remastered too. See link above.

Lunar Womb - The Astral Grief demo II 1997

Lunar Womb - The Astral Grief demo II 1997
1) Through the Silver Caves
2) Ebon Ocean

Yandex / Zippy

Hollow Myths

Ok, back to Finnish synth stuff, here is the second demo of (at this point) Henri's solo project Lunar Womb mentioned in the Kharadrai post. I actually was sent another rip already some time earlier by the Russian dungeon synth folks, thanks for that, but since I after that discussed the project with Henri and he sent me another rip (and scans) made from the master files I decided to rather use them. And being such an ass as I am, I start from demo II instead of the first controversial one. We'll get back to that later but not today.

Only two tracks, but both are long, eleven minutes each and different enough from one another. First one is rather upbeat, folky even, and somewhere between medieval darkwave and dungeon synth. Not just keys, there are distroted electric string instruments involved too. Second track starts slowly, ambient like and eventually, when a guitar joins the procession one might even anticipate a turn to an epic Moonsorrow track. Not happening, though the atmospheres are similar from time to time. This is great and very much recommended, if you're into atmospheric music at all. Even if you're not really much of an ambient, dungeon synth or whatever enthusiast you might dig the second part. I'm really curious to hear the third demo finished. A word of warning: the first demo is very, very, very, very different from this one! Ok, maybe not that different, but... well, you'll see.

UPDATE: Discovered, to my slight surprise, that Hollow Myths of USA had released a CD compiling this and "Planets" - I can't say anything definite about the release itself but looks promising. Apparently both were remastered too. See link above.

Neohellist: True Black Metal Compilation (2000)

Various Artists - Neohellist: True Black Metal Compilation tape (2000)
1) Crusade - Camella's Glare Upon Candleflames
2) Impiety - Sodomythical Frostgoats
3) Santhet - The True Witcraft
4) Cryogenic - Fimbulwinter
5) Armageddon Holocaust - The Seven Churches of Apokalypse
6) Unseen Darkness - Glorifications on My Sign Existance
7) Autumn Verses - The October Land
8) Perish - Burning Soul With a Winter Shadow
9) Vaakevandring - Some Day
10) Borgomil - Inferno Resonance
11) Behemoth - Satan's Sword (I Have Become)
12) Neurotic of Gods - Terbuai Mimpi Di Laut Duka
13) Kekal - Embrace the Dead
14) Mortality - Abandonment Unto Our Lady the Infinite
15) Gorbalrog - Sternengriff
16) Mystical - Evil Spells
17) Moonsorrow - Luopion veri
18) Hellgods - Ahl Sohn Bar
19) Maelstrom - The Darkest Winter

Depositfiles / Mega

This is the last of the compilation tapes Henri Sorvali sent me amongst the legion of other rips, well that's not entirely accurate as he sent also two of the Beverina compilations (#2 and #3) which I'd already ripped and posted. I'll still need to compare the quality of our rips to see if I'll replace mine with his rips. But back to today's item, this is a "true black metal" compilation made by Extreme Souls Production from Indonesia. I find it hard to take them and their "true" and "pure" black metal seriously when they start their thanks list hailing "GOD" but perhaps I'm missing something here. Let's not tarry on the label's possible poser status, it should not affect the content of the compilation nor is it the bands' fault.

A good thing about this compilation is that it has a large selection of Indonesian bands which I'm not very well familiar with, making it more interesting than a standard selection of Nordic bands with a token local band tossed in seen too often. The first band Crusade starts with a rather COF-esque track of quasi-symphonic black metal which isn't terrible but not very interesting either. Fortunately the next two bands keep it more real and especially another local Santhet manages to sound quite raw. The compilation goes on alternating between differing takes on black(-ened) metal and manages to maintain a somewhat uniform sound volume- and qualitywise while having enough variation to not get too dull. No major lapses, except maybe Borgomil who sound like their track was recorded in a can, not that it would be an issue. The covers have some errors, Hellgods is spelled "Hell Gods" and Moonsorrow is listed with wrong track. Overall better than average compilation tape, unless you for some reason hate Indonesian bands, and recommendable.

'Til Your Ears Bleed: Vol III European Attack (2000)

Various Artists - 'Til Your Ears Bleed: Vol III European Attack compilation tape (2000)
1) Moonsorrow - Taistelu Pohjolasta
2) Hödur - Unpure Race
3) Tharapitha - Demon's Night
4) Alcoholic Smashing War - Hail to a Long Awaited Alcoholic Victory
5) Eviternity - Cant IV
6) Tangrycan - Immortalize Sacrament
7) Consecrated - The Charming Voice

Rusfolder / Mediafire

Today I've decided to post another compilation tape master Sorvali sent me. Thanks again for the rip and scans to Henri! This is a bit unusual one, though unfortunately does not include extra goodies like the previous one's newsletter. The very non-standard length (a bit less than 38 minutes) is the thing that really puzzles me. Just about every other compilation tape ("A History of Time to Come" would be the first exception that comes to mind) was practically as long as the tape the person used (so either 60 or 90 minutes usually) and seeing as this was divided pretty evenly to two sides makes me wonder if the guy had scored a load of 40 minute tapes somewhere?

Ok, to content. Another thing that I was perplexed by was the timeline presented by the tracks here, four of the seven date to 1997, Tangrycan's track is from '96, Alcoholic Smashing War (jesus what a name!) dates to '98 and Moonsorrow is (again) featured with "Taistelu Pohjolasta" from the '99 demo. Did it really take so long to compile this? Or did he make three volumes and released them simultaneously when finished? And why does he stubbornly misspell Hödur as "Höndur"??? So many questions, so few answers and nobody probably cares. Well, I do so if you have more information, please share. Sound levels here are even and things flow surprisingly well, bands present are interesting enough and almost all play some variation of black/pagan metal (even A.S.W. - to my surprise) with the notable exception of Consecrated's gothic doom. A pretty neat little compilation.

Riding Hellwards: Volume 1 (1999)

Various Artists - Riding Hellwards: Volume 1 compilation tape 1999
1) Moonsorrow - Taistelu Pohjolasta
2) Thorax Serpenti - Hatred Souls (rehearsal)
3) Pandemia - Created Again
4) Nazgul - Celtic Lands
5) Shadowbreed - Path in the Dark
6) Baphomet - Crucifixion
7) Thoronath - Kristet blod
8) Katassamalass - Masticated Human Flesh
9) Svartkrist - Into the Abyss (live)
10) Atavism - Cemetary Cannibalism
11) Impuro - Orgia
12) Diamatregon - Throne to Eternity
13) Bilskirnir - For the Return of Paganism (rehearsal)
14) Demon Realm - Hammer of Hate
15) Unholy Archangel - Foronis
16) Prejudice - Perpetual Pain
17) Grimoria - A Great Sacrifice
18) Gorewinter - Buried by Night
19) Baxaxa - Thorn of Steel

Depositfiles / Rusfolder

I haven't done compilation tapes for a while and since master Sorvali's contributions included these too, I decided to upload this Belgian one today. Thanks to Henri again for the rip and scans! I don't know if more volumes of Riding Hellwards were released, but this one here came with an A4 newsletter and includes almost 90 minutes of mostly black metal bands. To my delight, it also includes a number of domestic bands besides the international cast.

The newsletter is a single A4 sheet, with print on both sides so I suppose I should say two pages. It contains interviews with Black Witchery, Funeral Rites and Moonsorrow, these are all quite short, especially Funeral Rites which is also pretty thin on the information side too. The other two are a better read. As for the main dish, the compilation itself, the sound is good and quite consistent, no extremely drastic volume leaps here. Music ranges from the epic heathen metal of Moonsorrow to raw and fast material like Baphomet to brutal death metal of Katassamalass and bestial blasting of Unholy Archangel. Prejudice's distrubingly modern metal sounding track also stands out like a sort thumb. Quite a varied selection of tracks despite having a black metal focus and several first time listens too. I'm going to need another listen and take some notes, there are a few bands I must inspect further.

Tyrant - Demo '98

Tyrant (fin) - Demo '98
1) The Omen
2) The Power Beyond Dimensions
3) The Dungeons of Eternal Torment

New version! - RGhost / Mediafire

Here's another request (finally) fulfilled with the assistance of comrade Grev who has once again provided me with a dub and cover scans - thank you! At least couple of people asked for this demo by Finland's Tyrant a few months ago, sorry I don't remember who right now but here it finally is. For many the reason they are interested in this is probably that Mitja Harvilahti of Moonsorrow fame played on this demo, I don't know which one of the aliases he was but I'm guessing "Shadow" who plays the lead guitar. This is the only release of the band as far as I know.

UPDATE: I've reuploaded this demo with another, better rip sent to me by Henri Sorvali, thank you, which also includes cover scans.

Now that the name-dropping has been taken care of we may concentrate on the music which is very good melodic Finnish black metal with a good demo sound. Easy to listen, very fluent but not too syrupy or ridiculously pompous or other generally annoying things I often have to associate with sympho/melodic bm. Not too original either but works for me and hasn't gotten boring so far. I suppose I can recommend this to the majority of the readers, except die hard death metal heads or necrocultists.

Meathooked #2

Meathooked 'zine, issue 2
Interviews:
Unhola
...And Oceans
Bethzaida
Gorewinter
Northern Sound Records
Imperial Foeticide
Red Harvest
Gandalf
Jesus Martyr
Choronzon
The Great Kat
Woods Of Belial
Heresiarh
In The Woods...
Thyrane
Season Of Mist
Musta Surma
Jotunheim
Mother Depth

Deposit

This was requested by Gal of Into The Woods... but I think it will be of interest to others as well. Meathooked was a Finnish 'zine made by the Sorvali cousins of Moonsorrow (the primary reason for interest in this I suspect) and some of their buddies in the late 90's, the era of decline in the black metal scene, which can be noticed while reading. Some of the interviews will no doubt be of interest to the visitors of this blog and there are some articles and two scene reports as well. I don't personally like the 'zine too much, it reeks of later 90's and the editors have read too much Isten. But give it a try, there is worthy content too.

Moonsorrow - Tämä Ikuinen Talvi demo 1999

Moonsorrow - Tämä Ikuinen Talvi demo 1999
1) Taistelu Pohjolasta
Osa I: Luo Veljien
Osa II: Punaisen Lumen Valtakunta
Osa III: Jäisten Järvien Kimalteessa
2) Vihreällä Valtaistuimella
3) Talvi
4) Luopion Veri
5) Kuun Suru

Reuploaded

I ripped my tape of the second Moonsorrow demo - you have heard of Moonsorrow, haven't you? - some time ago and decided to upload the rip as most rips around seem to be from the CD version released by Sagitarius in 2001 which was remastered and partially re-recorded (vocals and some other part I can't remember for now). So it's quite different from this original version. I don't think I need to go lenghts to explain Moonsorrow's music, but I'll mention the demos are closer to old Enslaved and slightly more black metallish than viking metal. Good stuff.

Thornfrost - Upon The Faustian Throne demo 1997

Thornfrost - Upon The Faustian Throne demo 1997
1) Shores Of Black Dawn
2) Sister Winter
3) Veiled In Crimson Skies
4) Thornfrost

Available here

This seems to be a pretty rare item, the only released recording of Henri & Ville Sorvali's (Moonsorrow) black metal project, featuring also Sami Heikura from Kharadrai. It was released in 1997 through the Sorvali cousins' Meat Hook Productions and that's where I ordered it from, I think. I vaguely remember buying this, Moonsorrow's "Tämä Ikuinen Talvi", 2nd issue of their 'zine and possibly some other tape or two.

But back to item at hand, this was supposed to be straight-forward black metal, but it's not of the raw & rough school, rather what we have here is Nordic black metal supported by synth. It sounds less sugary than the average synth-bm product of the era though. Unfortunately the sound was very weak and a bit fuzzy, not much more I could do. It's easy listening compared to LLN-items still. There are 4 tracks but the 1st and 4th are more like an intro and outro in my opinion, so it is a quite short release overall. Definitely worth a listen, especially to Moonsorrow fans.