Heidenreich
Discography:
"A Death Gate Cycle"
"Trance of an Unholy Union"
Heidenreich - "Trance Of An Unholy Union"
HEIDENREICH - "Trance Of An Unholy Union"...... This album will take you
into the void of Extreme Black Metal in it's most purest and obscure
strange forms! As amazing as this recording is, it contains
experimental Black Metal, samples, synths and freezing melodies.
This album is not like HEIDENREICH's first release entitled "A Death
Gate Cycle" at all really, it's more strange in ways but is also much
more extreme. "Trance Of Unholy Union" starts out with a really cool
intro entitled "An Incarnation's Dream" which lasts for 2:43, it sets a
atmosphere for what you will experience from this recording. Hard to
describe the musical content of this track and other HEIDENREICH
material on this release because it is quite original in my opinion. The
second track "Cosmic Reflections" starts out with electronic sounds,
kind of trancing actually for 37 seconds then the track turns Black
Metal from there, the music is extreme, raw, chilling, and melodic. The
best thing about this release is that it gets more and more extreme and
chilling the more you go into the album! The album contains 8 tracks and
total play time is 41:34. One of the strangest things about this
recording is that the last track is not Black Metal, it's kind of
classical with the piano, and jazz/blues like with the guitar, (which
surprised the shit out me, and it's quite good guitar work!) an
instrumental that lasts 6:40 and ends in a Black Metal kind of way, very
cool track. The piano really reminds me of "Moonlight Sonata" from famous
classical composer Bach, because it sounds very similar but it is
original and the feel of the track is very close to the same feel you get
from Bach's piece. HEIDENREICH is now joined with Lucia M. Faroutan-K of
GRABESMOND, because of a line-up change that occurred in HEIDENREICH
during the recording of the release. "Trance Of An Unholy" is excellent,
I strongly suggest picking it up on the release date of the 1st of
March, It WILL catch your interest and quite possibly blacken your soul
even more!!! Since I received the promo from Peter I haven't quit
listening to it as it seems to get better at every listen! Let it be
known that by you supporting HEIDENREICH, you support the Glorification
of Satan.
Contact:
Napalm Records
Vordernberger Str. 20
8790 Eienerz
Austria / Östrerreich
Heidenreich
Vereinsgasse 25/20
1020 Wien
Austria / Österreich
Obtained Enslavement-
Discography:
"Out of the Crypts"-Demo '93
"Centuries of Sorrow"-'94
"Witchcraft"-'97
"Soulblight"-'99
Obtained Enslavement-"Soulblight"
OBTAINED ENSLAVEMENT has returned with a new offering entitled
"Soulblight", this time on NAPALM RECORDS! As all OBTAINED ENSLAVEMENT
releases once again a line-up change has occurred with Morrigan
(Aeternus) and T. Reaper (Gorgoroth & Malignant Eternal), Tortur, the bass
player on "Witchcraft" was kicked out of the band right after the
recording was finished on "Witchcraft" and T. Reaper took his place...
Anyway, the album starts out with an intro called "A Black Odyssey,"
pretty cool but no where near topping the intro on the "Witchcraft" CD and
this release does not contain an outro like the last release did, just
pure extreme Norwegian Black Metal from the start of the second track to
the end... From there the next track is "The Dark Night Of Souls,"
Which starts out furiously! As this is how I know the band OBTAINED
ENSLAVEMENT at their best! This whole CD is really good, in my opinion
more extreme then the "Witchcraft" CD and the music is better played with
better musicianship and sound quality. It's a release that is extreme
and melodic at the same time, with the album being influenced by
classical artists such as Saeverud, Grieg, Beethoven, R. Wagner, and
Bach. Which is cool, but at the same time it leaves the recording as
sort of a mixture of unrelated material, because the piano plays in the
background throughout many of the tracks, often not really taking to the
same atmosphere that the tracks create, still it is a really good
release from these Norwegians who first captured my interest with their
last release "Witchcraft." The majority of the music on this release was
mainly written between Heks and Dĝden and lyrics mostly were written
by Dĝden and Pest (just as most of "Witchcraft" was). But everyone in
the band had a hand in writing the material of the release, even
Morrigan wrote the words for the track "Voice From A Starless Domain."
You get only 7 tracks on this new release by OBTAINED ENSLAVEMENT but
the total running time of this release is about 43:08. This is a great
release once again by OBTAINED ENSLAVEMENT and overall I'd say that they
topped their last release "Witchcraft". So hopefully the line-up of
OBTAINED ENSLAVEMENT is now complete for the first time since they
started in 1989!
Obtained Enslavement
Strandgaten 84
5004 Bergen
Norway
Myrmidon
Myrmidon-Divine Blasphemy-Demo '99
MYRMIDON is a new band from Texas, USA. This demo is their first
recording. The demo consists of 5 tracks of Black Metal music. Really
well produced demo, the sound quality is really good for the most part,
probably one of the cleanest sounding demo's I've ever heard with the
exception of the way the drums were recorded. I interviewed this band on
my first issue of Realms Of Darkness Zine, before their demo was even
made. At that time they were only a two man band that consisted of Shade
(strings) and Buer (drums, and vocals), since then they added a third
member- Nunrape. This demo is pretty good, not as extreme in deepness of
sound, as the demo is a pretty clean recording, but this band is
certainly Blasphemous! And the next demo is guaranteed to be more extreme
and grim by guitarist Shade's words! The rise of American Black Metal
has been going pretty strong in the past few years, where bands are
emerging from everywhere, some just plain out suck, others are certainly
worth picking up, MYRMIDON is one of those bands that are worth picking
up! The demo is available from the band right now, but it will also be
carried very soon on my distro Realms Of Darkness and by Abyss
Productions, the demo's are CD format as well and comes with great cover
art. The music is fast, extreme, and pretty skilled guitar playing, the
vocals are a little like a cross of Black Metal and Black/Death. It is an interesting recording. No keyboards and gay female
vocals either!!! Which is the best kind of extreme in my opinion!
Ravens Over Gomorrah
Ravens Over Gomorrah - 'Blasphemous hymns, Nighttime serenades' demo '98
Ravens Over Gomorrah is a US Black metal band. This demo contains 4
tracks. I'll have to say that this demo is a mixture of
melodic/atmospheric Black Metal with extremeness to it. But I think I
also have to say that I don't think this demo is 100% either, it has
it's down parts. One of them being that the recording is ok, nothing
great with the production. Second and more important thing is that the
music is a mixture of well played and then some not so well played
parts, I noticed some parts here and there where the bands time accuracy
is not so great. The keyboards in this bands music is pretty good, well
played and not so over done like many bands tend to do these days in
their music. The extreme music parts are as I said not so great all the
time. This is a band that certainly holds some really good potential for
their future no doubt. But right now, with this demo, I wouldn't call it
a great recording. This band kind of did catch some of my interest
though, as I said I think this is a band that holds a lot of potential
for their future. I hate to give a "bad review" (in which I don't think
this is all that bad of a review), but I have to be fair and give my
honest opinion on it, other wise there is no sense in me reviewing it at
all. Hopefully the guy Mike in this band will keep me informed on their
progress from time to time, I'm interested in giving their next demo a
listen, as I'm sure it will be better then their current attempt, as all
bands take a while to find "their" sound.
Pagan
Pagan -'Heathen Upheaval' demo '98
PAGAN is a 3 member band from Türkiye, they are a mixture of
atmospheric/melodic Black Metal and it's very well played! I think this
demo is excellent actually and the sound quality is really great as
well! The demo contains 5 tracks including a intro and outro so that is
7 tracks all together you get, the music is well played, the timing is
excellent, the vocals are really good as well, and the music kind of
takes you on a journey of thoughts into an obscure abyss. There is a lot
of keyboards in this recording but the music is also pretty fast and
heavy except for when it's only the keyboards playing. This band kind of
reminds me of Thy Serpent in a way, but different and kind of original.
The guitar work on this recording is excellent as well and it includes
acoustic guitar parts also. I'd certainly say that this band will be
around for a long time (they were formed in 'the winter of '95 but had
some line-up changes, the only original member is Talciron who actually
was the one who formed PAGAN in the first place). Hopefully this band
will make a new demo in the current year, I'm certainly interested in
hearing more of them. The demo's total running time is 35 minutes and
the demo only costs a low $5 (Europe) $6 (overseas), and the cool thing
about this band is that they give demo's for free to zines, labels, and
distro's to have a listen and review. I may get back in contact with
Talciron about distro'ing this demo on Realms and possibly an interview
also, I liked it so much. In any case, I give this demo a great
recommendation.
Centurian
Centurian - "Of Purest Fire"
CENTURIAN is a Death Metal band off Full Moon Productions label.
This band could be compared to Deicide because they sound
similar to one another, but a little different I suppose. This release is
great though and contains two cover songs, the first is "Blasphemy"
from Morbid Angel and the second is "Damnation For The Holy" by
Inquisitor. Both cover songs are great and keep to the original sound of
the tracks, which is what I like when cover tracks are done in the first
place. The CD contains one intro and an outro and there are 8 tracks
total. The release has song titles like "Evoking Demonstorms Hell At
Last", (which is actually the intro), "Better off Burning", "God got
Killed", and "Of Purest Fire." All and all this is a great Death Metal
release, and I only paid like $13 for it.
Label contact address:
Full Moon Productions
2039 Roxburgh Court
Lakeland, FL 33813
USA
Label website:
www.fmp666.com
Summon
Summon - "Dark Descent Of Fallen Souls"
(Grinding Peace Records)
SUMMON is a US Black Metal band from Michigan. This release contains 11
tracks. It starts out with an intro that is of a burning fire sound,
thunder, and keyboards for kind of a medieval/majestic feel I
suppose... which lasts for like 1 minute and 38 seconds. The first
track is certainly very metal, which kind of reminds me of the material
you would find from the first Demoniac album "Prepare for War."
There are two vocalists for SUMMON as well and they are Necromodeus and
Eaphan, the other member is Amduscius. In any
case, this album is an exploration of METAL where at time it is a little
slow in speed (but not too slow) and then at other times very brutal and
obscure! Some song titles of this album are "Enter Into Eternal Oath",
"Eve Of The Anti-Creation", "Beyond The Gates Of Storm", "Necromantic
Lust", "The Silence Of Chaos", "Sorrows Of Moonless Night", etc... Out
of the US BM "scene" I'd say SUMMON are among one of the best bands
you'll find in this country for Black Metal... They also have some
Black/Death Metal in their music which is cool for the mixture. Total
running time on this release is about 45 minutes or so.
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