Hellenic Metal |

Abstruse – Transgression Promo CD

Abstruse was formed in 2002 and it´s the musical and optical realisation of the visions of the two members Substant and Veiler. The Transgression promo CD is a good example, that the band´s vision is more than just music, it features one CD with music and one DVD with optical material which accompanies the music.

Let´s begin first with the music. The CD contains seven songs of progressive, but also dark metal music. The songs are not very aggressive (the title Transgression means something like “behind aggression”) but there are slight references to more extreme forms of metal. The basement of the songs is mostly a lead guitar, which actually “lead” the songs, often in collaboration with a piano! The band adds lots of keyboard sounds and create an uncomfortable atmosphere. The dark vocals contribute also to the eerie atmosphere. Due to its progressive content, the listener will need more time to get through the songs, but fans of the genre will surely like that musical approach! After a few times of listening, the melodies won´t leave your head for a while and will hunt you like a nightmare. My only complaint is, that all songs have too similar songwriting and sometimes I thought that there is just one large song on the CD!

The DVD contains four video clips, accompanying four tracks of the band with a very artistic approach. So the music and the vision become together even more strange. One video of the band (for the song Neuronal Forest) was actually shown on the Athens Video Art Festival.

The images the band has added to the music, are mostly very surrealistic and hardly to describe. They surely had something in mind as they did this, something that I maybe don´t see clearly enough, as the images have for me no central theme and are connected just loosely.

I never saw a promo CD like this. You don´t get such an artistic heavyweight every day. The CD and DVD come with a great booklet and the whole package is very professional! I got CD´s of bigger bands which are of much lesser quality!

Written by Skariotis

Acrimonious - Unholy Cult Demonic

Acrimonious delivers us their first recording. Unholy Cult Demonic is, as you may notice from the evil title, a demo full of fast, blasphemous Black Metal in the vein of the Norwegian scene of the early 90´s. You will not find any atmospheric keyboard or female vocals, only Black Metal hell, right in your face. The demo has battle-sounds as intro and three songs, A New Beginning, (Sanctum Regnum), Ravishing Darkness and Towards Victory. The music is not really something new, but well-played, traditional stuff. All members seem to know what they are doing, especially the drummer knows to attract with his fast, but diverse drumming. Support True Black Metal is written on the backside, that´s no problem for me with bands like Acrimonius!

Written by Skariotis

Agatus - A Night Of The Dark Ages

This demo is the first recording of Agatus. It was released in 1993. There are four songs on that much wanted demo, which the most websites have a wrong songlist, here´s the right one: It starts with the folky/pagan intro Prayer In Honour Of Agatus, a calm piece which could be done that way only from a Greek band. First song is Circling Around The Fire Of The Woods. Fans will recognize that Heavy Metal-like song, ´cause the band re-recorded it and released it on the second album The Weaving Fates as Visions Of The Moon. It features already all trademarks which stand not only for Agatus´music, but for Greek Black Metal bands generally: Black Metal mixed with Heavy Metal riffs and atmospheric keyboards. The second song has the nice title Sodomizing Bloodshed Under A Frozen Blaze Of A Catacthonian Lord, and it´s a bit faster than the first one. Last song is Descent Of The Dark One, for me the best song on the demo. Eskarth wrote already in this early stage of Agatus really good songs, full of strong riffs and fitting keyboards! This demo is Hellenic Black Metal history!

Written by Skariotis

Agatus - Black Moon Promo Tape

The tape was released in 1994. The band members Eskarth and Vorskaath moved from Greece to Australia and released the tape from there. It contains two songs, which were recorded in the legendary Storm Studio (Rotting Christ´s home studio, formerly known as Molon Lave Studio) as Agatus recorded their first full-length album Dawn Of Martyrdom. The versions of the two songs, Black Moon´s Blood and Force Of Desecration, are the same as on the album, so the tape was released basically to promote and present the album to record labels. Both songs are great, but Agatus could have put every song from Dawn Of Martyrdom on the promo tape, ´cause every song is simply stunning! After the promo, Agatus signed a deal with the Greek label Hypervorea Records, the new label of their producer Magus Wampyr Daoloth (Necromantia). This label released just four albums in very limited numbers, so despite the magnificence of Agatus´ debut, just few noticed its greatness. Today, both releases, promo tape and the first issue of the album, are collector´s items!

Written by Skariotis

Armed Death - Army Of Death Demo I

Armed Death was formed in the year 1989 in Xanthi, Northern Greece under the name Army Of Death. Under this name they recorded in 1991 their first demo called Demo I. It features one intro and three songs, with truly the most cult Death Metal names: The Time Of Death, Army Of Death and Mechanical Death! Of course the members posed for the photo in a cemetery. The band was very young and despite their enthusiasm, their first demo is an evidence of a hungry band, which can´t wait to play its stuff, but it´s a bit too early for a recording. The songwriting is due to the young age on a primitive level, the songs are about two minutes in duration and played with some mistakes. The music is Death/Black Metal, but due to the inexperience on the instruments pretty punky. But this demo is just the first footstep of a young band, let´s see how they will evolve!

Written by Skariotis

Armed Death - Vaundoun

After the first demo, Army Of Death changed name to Armed Death and released in 1992 the second dem otape. It features one intro and outro and three songs, which do not have these killer names as the songs of the first demo, but are musically superior. The band plays something between Death and Black Metal with influences of Hellenic bands like early Rotting Christ and early Nightfall. Especially the deep voice of Tonis reminds the first two Nightfall albums, anyway, Armed Death´s music is much faster. All Three songs, Appearance Of Death, Rotting Corpses and The Day Of Crucifixion are a bit too long in duration, all around six minutes. If the band would had not put some speed changes in their songs, it would be even worse, but so it´s just a bit too long. Since their first demo they learned to play their instruments better and faster, but do not except some guitar hero solos here. We are still talking about evil, primitive Death Metal.

Written by Skariotis

Armed Death - Return 1991-93... 2006...

After the second demo Vaundoun, Armed Death split up in 1993. After twelve years, the two core members Antonis and Zisis recreated the band in 2005 and released via the Greek In Metal We Trust Records a CD, which features their two old demos, two new songs and one cover version. The CD begins with the new song Ancient Soul. The band got older and the songwriting matured, so the new material is much better than the old demo songs. Ancient Soul can be described easily as a typical Hellenic Death/Black Metal song. The voice of Antonis and some fast parts remind early Nightfall, the slower parts remind early Varathron and Rotting Christ. Of course there are also the obligatory keyboards. Second song is a cover-version of the Rotting Christ song The Forest Of N´Gai. Armed Death stays true to the original song, you can only recognize the cover from the original because of the vocals and the good production (the original has a weaker sound). Really great and detailed work! The two new songs are followed by the five tracks of the Vaundoun Demo. You can hear immediately the improvement of the band regarding the songwriting. There´s also an unreleased track called The Time Of Death on the CD. It´s a second, more professional version of the homonymous song from the first demo. The last three songs are from that demo and it´s just like listening to another band. There´s absolutely no comparison with the new professional songs on the CD. Nevertheless, the band didn´t put the two original demo recordings on the CD, but took the time and cost to have them remastered! I hope that I will listen more from them in the future!

Written by Skariotis

Atrocious - Shades Of The Sanguine Tree

Atrcious is a one-man project from Lord Atrocious, a member of the Cypriot band Dystopia. The music style of Atrocious is a mixture of Doom and Black Metal. All six songs are long in duration (even the intro is almost five minutes long) but you think they are even longer, because there is no variety in the songwriting. The riff which starts the song will end it. The speed is very slow and atmospheric keys and piano melodies are added constantly. The mood is generally a very dark one and the steady repeat of the riffs makes the whole demo not very friendly for easy consume. Vocals are used very rarely, but when they appear they are typical high shrieks in Black Metal manner (too heavy distorted in my opinion). If there were not these vocals, the demo would have nothing in common with Black Metal. Imagine deep growls or even clean vocals, they would fit as well to the music. Highlight is the song The Emperor, due to its great melody line full of devastating sadness. You have to be depressive to enjoy this demo, if you´re not depressive before you start to listen, you will be after The Emperor. If you can´t feel and don´t like melancholic mood in music, don´t even think about putting the CD into your player! If you always wanted to listen to an amalgamation of Doom Metal and Black Metal get your copy!

Written by Skariotis

Bethor - Unholy Bride Of Mayhem

Bethor was founded sometime in the early 90´s. The Unholy Bride Of Mayhem promo tape is the first release, it dates back to the year 1995. The tape features one intro and one song, the title track. The intro is a short, atmospheric keyboard tune and the one and only song starts immediately afterwards. It is a slow, typical 90´s Black Metal song, which has influences of both scenes, Hellenic and Norwegian. Especially vocalist Savaoth has the typical high-pitched shrieks. The riffing is good, there are no special guitar melodies, only slow riffs and the sound is satisfying. Sadly, there is only one song on that tape, so I can´t say much about on how they sound generally.

Written by Skariotis

Black Winter - A Dark Echo From The Demoniacal Hell Of Lucifer

This demo is the second demo of Black Winter (released in 2002). They deliver us infernal Black Metal exclusively, as they promise on the backside of the demo. This means, they are following many other new Greek bands in the musical path of the classic Norwegian Black Metal scene. Almost all new bands are sounding like early 90´s Scandinavian bands, which of course is not a bad thing, but there are only few (or nobody) who continue in the way of their fellow countrymen, bands like Agatus, Varathron or Zemial, to name just few. Let´s return to Black Winter, they play not only full-speed Black Metal, but they have also slower, grim parts in their songs, which remind me sometimes the band Medieval Demon. Luckily, Black Winter sound better on their demo, as Medieval Demon on their one and only album! On the demo are six tracks, the last one is a keyboard outro. Like many bands, Black Winter want not progress musically, but remain in the vein of the great Norwegian bands. With the vocal skills of singer Astrous and the traditional songwriting, the band manages to fullfil easily its infernal promise!

Written by Skariotis

Black Winter - Still Alive... But Soon Dead

Black Winter´s third demo is a live recording from a gig in Larisa. They supported there in 2003 the mighty Septic Flesh. The demo-tape was released by Peruvian Magistellus Infernal Productions in a limited number of 150 tapes. It contains seven songs, two Black Winter songs and, as tribute to their musical idols, five cover versions. The Black Winter songs are Chimonanthus and The Mourning Of The Angels. Both are grim tunes from their second demo A Dark Echo From The Demoniacal Hell Of Lucifer. The covered songs are Spells Of Destruction from Burzum, Primordial from Italian Mortuary Drape, In The Shadow Of The Horns from Darkthrone, King Of A Stellar War from Rotting Christ and Where Winters Forever Cry from Austrian Summoning. All songs are played well and stay true to the original songs. Vocalist Astrous has an aggressive voice and he is screaming on a very high level. The songlist contains not only Scandinavian Black Metal songs, but covers European scenes (Norway, Austria, Italy, Greece). Black Winter delivers us a nice collage of the European Black Metal scene with this nice live-demo! Watch out, ´cause the tape is very limited!

Written by Skariotis

Chaosbaphomet - Temple Of The Serpent Baphomet

Chaosbaphomet is a Black Metal band which features a member of Unholy Archangel (Iapetos 666). Their first demo was released in 2004 by Acherontas Promotion. It has two songs and one intro. The band plays fast, satanic Black Metal, which, in contrary to Unholy Archangel, has integrated some calmer parts between the blastbeats. The songs are Smash The Cross With Infernal Power and Sons Of The Black Skies. Despite the speed of the songs and the Scandinavian influences, they somehow remind me the very old Necromantia stuff (particularly the second song). You can also hear the bass, which is not usual for a demo production. If they would concentrate more on the Necromantia/Hellenic influences, they will become surely more recognisable, ´cause now too many things are just standard Black Metal, played a million times before. I don´t know if the band still exists or if this was just a project. This demo is their only sign of life.

Written by Skariotis

Cthonium - The Final Congregation

The first and only demo from this obscure horde from Thessaloniki is The Final Congregation demo tape from the year 1993. A member of Cthonium was also active in the band Twilight, which was better known at that time. Cthonium plays a very raw form of early Black Metal, reminding the music of Beherit. Grim riffing, blastbeat attacks and evil shrieks are predominant on the three songs of the demo, which are surrounded by a dark intro and outro. Pretty evil recording for a Greek band at that time! Cthonium followed their Greek Black Metal fellows from Athens only in terms of satanism and occultism, musically they chose other, more brutal paths. So here you won´t find the typical Greek atmosphere, which is surely not a bad thing. Black Metal fanatics, or followers of the old and pure sound of Black Metal have this demo anyway in their collection.

Written by Skariotis

The Circle Of Zaphyan - Flesh Without Soul

The Circle Of Zaphyan is one of the most promising new Death Metal bands of Greece! The band was founded in the year 2002 by guitarist Athanasios and drummer Costas (ex-Nightfall). The vocalist is Apollon. Costas left after some time and the band hired nobody else than George Kollias (Nile, ex-Nightfall) as session drummer. Bass is played by Orestis. The band calls its music style Space Death Metal and this fits well. The promo CD features two songs and both tracks are of excellent quality. Modern Death Metal with lots of atmospheric keyboards and great vocals. First song is Flesh Without Soul, a fast song with an amazing rhythm. One of the best Death Metal songs I´ve heard the recent time! Second and last song is Your Inner Wasteland To Behold, which has a groove that reminds sometimes the great Bolt Thrower. The Circle Of Zaphyan recently recorded their debut album, if this is of the same quality as the two songs, we have to expect much from this band in the future!

Written by Skariotis

Dark Messiah - Immortal Battlefield

Immortal Battlefield is the second demo CD of the Black Metal band Dark Messiah. The band released it in 2004. The nine songs on the demo show us a young band who dedicates its energy on a thrashing, raw and unpolished mix of Black and Death Metal, enriched by some epic parts, in the vein of bands like Desaster. Those more epic songs are also the best on Immortal Battlefield, songs like Dawn Of The Battle, ...For The Black Hearted and Dark Epic Death. Generally, the material is well-played, but mostly too mediocre, many things have been played by myriads of Black Metal bands before. But if the band would expand this certain epic feeling, they surely will become more noticeable out of the bulk of the uncountable Black Metal bands.

Written by Skariotis

Dark Nova - Promo 1998

Dark Nova´s debut album The Dark Rhapsodies was released in 1993. Between 1993 and 1998 the band didn´t split, but had some few live appearances in Greece. In 1998 they recorded this three-song promo-cassette and sent it to the record labels, to get an album deal. The outcome was a contract with the record label Seven, which released Dark Nova´s second album 1999... A Step Beyond?. As I never saw this album in stores or mailorders, the contract was probably not so good.

Let´s return to the demo. There are three songs, whose order is fucked up on the booklet. There is also a mistake on the tape, as the second song ends, it begins again from the middle. This attitude is not very suitable for finding a proper label. There are just three songs, how can these mistakes happen? Musically, the band changed not much, they still play traditional Power Metal, but with a more down-to-earth approach as the debut, without the endless solos and the orchestral compositons. Two songs of the promo were later included in the second album, the songs Horizon and Eye Of The Storm.

Written by Skariotis

Demarrage - Promo Version 1.0

Demarrage were formed in summer 2005 and in early 2006 they released already their first promo CD called Promo Version 1.0. This promo CD looks very professional, I got many CD´s from record labels here, that are of a much lower quality. There are four songs of crushing metal on the CD, reminding Slipknot, Soulfly and Korn. I think by mentioning these bands you will got an imagination of the sound, although the band adopted its own songwriting. Beside the angry English vocals of Caribu they even got lyrics in Latin language. First I thought it is a Portuguese guest vocalist, well that´s not far away... The band has a DJ with turntables in its line-up, reminding me sometimes the Greek Hardcore band Dichasmenes Alithies. For such a music it´s absolutely necessary that you have a kick-ass-sound like the bands I mentioned above, and surprisingly, the sound of Promo Version 1.0 is not only clear, but also very powerful. I don´t know how many thousand of dollars a band like Slipknot spend for the production, but I know that Demarrage´s sound is absolutely equal. The promo is recorded in the Fragile Studio in Athens, I don´t know by whom, but he created a killer sound every band wishes to have! By listening to this promo, I realize what I missed on the last Slipknot album. Demarrage still got the anger, the skills and the hunger for aggressive, modern metal! I hope that they´ll find a record label soon, so their music will be accessible to many people.

Written by Skariotis

Despise - State Of Brutality

Despise exists since the mid 80´s, so we are talking here about veterans of the Greek underground metal scene. The two core-members are Makis (vocals, guitars) and Maria (bass). State Of Brutality was their first official demo, released in 1993. They recorded it themselves, but the sound is really powerful! It contains four songs of technical, aggressive Thrash Metal in the vein of bands like Slayer. All four songs are well-written and well-played. I can´t imagine that fans of Slayer in their late 80´s period will not like that demo. And that´s also the only negative thing. The band sounds too much like Slayer´s Seasons In The Abyss/South Of Heaven. Makis sounds also almost like Tom Araya. The positive thing is, that the material is easily compatible to Slayer´s material. So all Thrash Metal fans can invest blindly. State Of Brutality shows us the talent of the band, which hopefully will find their own style in the narrow field of Thrash Metal.

Written by Skariotis

Despise - Indefinite Force LP Demo

13 years after their first demo State Of Brutality, Despise self-released this demo CD to promote their debut album, which is already recorded, but not released, ´cause the band has no label-contract yet. There are eight songs on that CD, four new tracks from the unreleased LP Indefinite Force (Wheels & Crowns, Evil Monster, Born To Kill and Pray) and as bonus, the four tracks of the legendary State Of Brutality demo. Luckily, Despise managed to get out of the Slayer shadow and sound more mature and they are thrashing with a lot more variety, still managing to sound purely Thrash Metal. The songs are not so fast anymore, but are in a slower, darker mood than the usual Thrash Metal stuff and have also lots of melodies. Despise didn´t walk the path of many other thrashers, getting faster and faster and more brutal, till all musicality is gone. The sound is absolutely equal to many professionally recorded CD´s, Despise recorded the songs in their own recording studio. Really strong production! I hope that the Indefinite Force album is gonna be released sometime, so we can enjoy the whole work of Despise and not only these four songs. If you´re into real Thrash Metal (and not into this nowaday`s trend) then get in contact with Despise or their distributor Live Music Records and get your copy of this demo, it features eight songs of powerful, thrashing Metal.

Written by Skariotis

Deviser - Thy Blackest Love

Deviser released this demo in 1996, in the same year as their debut album Unspeakable Cults. The demo contains three songs. Generally the style of Deviser is melodic Black Metal with some very fast parts.

The first song is The Fire Burning Bright. It begins with a slow melodic guitar and the vocals of Matt, which are pure evil Black Metal, but still very unique! Despite their mid-tempo speed, Deviser have always at least one fast part in their songs, maybe only a short one, but often pretty deadly. Song two is Threnody, which is in the same vein as the first song. In contradiction to other Greek Black Metal bands, Deviser based their songs on a guitar melody and not on dark metal riffs, which are typical for the Hellenic scene. But the usage of keyboards is obligatory. Song three is 2000 Years Of Lies, a faster song than the previous two.

The first two songs are also released in the debut album Unspeakable Cults. There is also a compilation CD from Deviser, that is called Thy Blackest Love. On this CD, this early demo is included.

Written by Skariotis

[quote][b]Quoth skariotis[/b]:
Deviser - Thy Blackest Love Demo

Deviser released this demo in 1996, in the same year, their debut album, Unspeakable Cults, came out. The demo contains three songs. Generally the style of Deviser is melodic Black Metal with some very fast parts.

The first song is The Fire Burning Bright. It begins with a slow melodic guitar and the vocals of Matt, which are pure evil Black Metal, but still very unique! Despite their mid-tempo speed, Deviser have always at least one fast part in their songs, maybe only a short one, but sometimes pretty deadly. Song two is Threnody, which is in the same vain as the first song. In contradiction to other greek Black Metal bands, Deviser based their songs on a guitar melody and not on dark metal riffs, which are typical for the hellenic scene. But the usage of keyboards is obligatory.  Song three is 2000 Years Of Lies, a faster song than the previous two.

The first two songs are also released in the debut album, Unspeakable Cults. There is also a compilation CD from Deviser, that is called Thy Blackest Love. On this CD, this early demo is included.        [/quote]

Drunkard - Alcoholic Thrash Attack

You feel nostalgic? You´re longing for the decade of the 1980´s, as men were still men and metal was thrashing without compromise? Then you should get your copy of Drunkard´s debut demo Alcoholic Thrash Attack. It was released in 2002 by Deathstrike Records. The title is no false promise, here you´ll get dirty, fast, alcohol-influenced Thrash Metal, in the vein of Sodom, very old Sepultura and Tankard. The six songs of the demo were recorded in just four hours, so don´t expect much virtuosity. Nevertheless, the sound is good for a demo, giving the songs a rawness they deserve. So take yourself a beer and bang your head to songs like Alcoholowarriors, Disco Slaughter or the last track Burst Command ´til War (a Sodom cover).
Cheers!

Written by Skariotis

Echidna - ...This Suffering

Echidna (the She-Viper of the Greek mythology) is a young band from Thessaloniki and ...This Suffering is the first demo. It was released in 2006 and contains four songs. The band´s style is something between modern Thrash and Death Metal with some additional melodies. The songwriting is well-thought-out, features a lot of variety and many solos. There is also a certain feeling of progressive Death Metal sometimes, the members surely can convince with their technical abilities. Singer Theo is not growling, but has an own kind of screaming, sounding aggressive and unique at the same time. The demo starts powerfully with Downforce. Highlight of the demo is Balance Preservation, which got some kind of oriental melody, fitting perfectly to the aggressive music. Depleted sounds like a fist in the stomach, thankfully due to the strong sound of this demo. Last song is the title track, which starts calmly with a nice solo, but then expoldes within a second. Let me mention the chorus of the song, together with the last solo it makes the song even better! Echidna released a really strong demo, none of these four songs has any weak point. I hope that a label will recognise soon the potency of ...This Suffering, ´cause Echidna´s music should be known to many metal heads worldwide!

Written by Skariotis

Elysian Fields - Promo Tape ´95

This is the second demo of the Greek Blacksters (The) Elysian Fields. The first was released under the name Desulphurize. There are two songs on it, that are also released on the debut album Adelain. The music of Elysian Fields is very fast, but also very melodic Black Metal, with a strong keyboard presence, which, in contrary to other Greek bands, is used not only to create an unholy atmosphere, but to play melody lines as well.

The first song is Elysian Fields, the second song is Father Forgive Them (For They Do Not Know). Both songs hit the same direction, fast Black Metal with incredible guitar and keyboard melodies. The vocals of Bill are a bit deeper than on the first album, that´s maybe the main difference.
The promo tape is a good reference for the albums that will follow!

Written by Skariotis

Encomium - Promo ´97

I didn´t know anything about a Greek band called Encomium and as I searched online I didn´t find any information. As I looked at the line-up in the booklet, I was surprised, one of the two members is called Bob Katsionis (Firewind, Nightfall, Septic Flesh...)! With the help of his homepage, I was able to pick up more information. This promo tape from the year 1997 was spread to promote a CD called Images Of A Sacred Antiquity. But this CD was never released, so this promo is the only sign of the musical existence of that band. The members were Bob, who played all instruments and Spiros, who contributed vocals. There is sadly just one song on the tape (promo CD´s were not very common in that time), called The Ancient Breed. It´s a slow Black Metal song with strong use of symphonic keyboards. The riffing reminds Varathron, but on the whole duration of the song the keyboard dominates the sound (this is the proof: it´s really THE Bob Katsionis playing here). The vocals of Spiros are deep, reminding me the vocals of the Greek band Invocation (RIP). Is this the same guy? The song turns at the end slightly into a Rammstein direction (riffs and keys). Nice song, I wish there would be more on that tape! Can anybody release this CD, please?

Written by Skariotis

Eschaton/Burial Hordes - Total Gathering Of Supremacy Split Tape

The two Greek Black Metal hordes gathered in 2005 and released together this split tape by Nigra Mortis Productions (limited to 333 copies). Both bands contribute one intro and two songs. Eschaton´s songs are Goetic Evocation and Despair Of Those. Eschaton´s musical direction turns into the later Naer Mataron sound, with a harsh guitar sound and permanent blastbeat in the Norwegian tradition. Burial Hordes, the band which features several members of another known Black Metal band, Enshadowed, has a slightly different approach towards Black Metal. Their songs Bestial Bloodwar and Submission To Eternal Pain are more direct, in-your-face Black Metal, with a raw and brutal sound. Both bands deliver nice songs, but two songs each band is just too little. Luckily, the split tape was re-released as a split CD by God Is Dead Records with one bonus song each band (limited to 500 numbers)! Eschaton covers Sleeping Under Tartarus from Zemial and Burial Hordes contributes also a cover, a live version of the Carpathian Forest track Suicide Song. Now all Black Metal purists will have their grim fun with this split release!

Written by Skariotis

Eventide - A Memory Of Men

Eventide was known as Stormbringer, but after the departure of some members, the remaining two members Alexandros and Akis, changed the name of the band to Eventide. This promo CD contains four rough-mixed songs of their forthcoming debut album. The music style of the band is traditional metal with some influences from epic Heavy Metal, and even the Black Metal scene. Whereas the first song The Shadow Of The Past is purely influenced by Iced Earth, the other three songs show us a more personal side of the band. Dead Stones Whisper, In Ruins and Semi-Christ, all three songs take elements of the whole metal scene and cannot be described as common Power Metal. They are a conglomerate of strong metal riffs combined with slow and calm whispering parts and epic melodies, combined with few Black Metal screams and thoughtful used keyboards. And at last, the songs are crowned by the vocals of Alexandros, who seems to be a talented guy! You can hear it in the music and you can read it in the lyrics, that the band worked a lot on the songs. The sound is also satisfying for a rough-mix. I really hope that the band will get a deal for that album, a song like In Ruins is simply fucking great! And I´m sure, that as time goes by, Eventide will create an even more independend sound. Thumbs up!

Written by Skariotis

Exhumation - The Rebirth

The Rebirth demo was released in 1990 and it is the first official recording of Exhumation. The band was pretty young at that time. There are four songs on the demo. Fauls Reality, The Vanity, The Rebirth and Azagthoth. All songs are best examples of the old, traditional Death Metal scene! They remind the glorious music of old Entombed and Death. They are well executed with nice solos, speed and riff changes etc. It makes really fun to listen to this kind of music, the band sounds fresh and hungry for fast metal music. I wonder why nobody noticed the band at that time, it was the zenith of the Death Metal movement and many people started to listen to Death Metal bands. Exhumation´s debut came out seven years after their first demo in 1997 and of course they had changed their style and turned into the melodic Death Metal scene. Listening to the demo I can say that they were ready for an album even in 1990! Sad that so much time had to pass...

Written by Skariotis

Exhumation - Deepest Side Of Fear

This demo was released by the band in 1994. Exhumation played at that time Thrash/Death Metal without the strong Swedish influence they had in their later days. They sounded a bit like early Sepultura (the vocals) and Death (good musical skills). On the demo are four songs, which are a good mix between the factors I mentioned above. For fans of melodic/technical Death Metal this demo will not be a disappointment!

Written by Skariotis

Funeral Urn - Demo 1992

Funeral Urn was a rather underground band from Greece in the early 90´s. They released several demo tapes and a split 7" EP with Nergal.

This demo starts with a haunting intro named Sorcery. The first real song, Haunted House, clearly states what kind of music this is. Mid-paced Death Metal with some heavy riffing and good (morbid) Death Metal vocals (reminding me of early Mortuary Drape). In the middle of the song is a slower part that reminds me of early Burzum. This creates a nice atmosphere in the song, which ends when the heavy riffing starts again. A great song!

The third song Release The Soul, starts with a creepy bass, which evolves to the mid-paced simple structured, but effective Death Metal. This song is more bass-driven than the first song.

The last song Prophecy Of The Dead, is the best song on the demo. It starts with the well-known Hellenic sound. It starts with a keyboard intro and continues with the heavy riffing and morbid grunts. Although the music on this demo tape is rather simple, it is a good example of early Greek Death Metal, with the usage of keyboards to create a haunting atmosphere and the dark and heavy riffing, combined with Death Metal vocals.

Written by Istharol

Funeral Urn – Beyond The Fields Of Reality

This is the second demo tape of Funeral Urn. It was released in 1993. It contains three songs of grim, mid-tempo Death Metal with fucking evil vocals! The songs are Mahr, A Tale From Far Beyond and Redeemed. The riffing is simple, but effective. The sound quality is OK for a demo of the early 90´s. False Prophet of Nordor is participating as session musician, he contributes guitars and growls.

The last two songs were recycled in the split EP with Nergal. Unisound Records used the same mediocre demo recordings, instead of having the songs recorded again with a proper sound. Except the re-released songs of the EP, Funeral Urn released just two demos and then disappeared off the scene. Strange to say that their name is still known by underground maniacs!

Written by Skariotis

Goathrone - ...For His Glory

The tape was released by the band initially in 1996 but it was re-released in 1998 by Demonion Productions (the small underground label of Macabre Omen´s Alexandros). It features one intro, one song and one outro. The intro ...For His Glory (Satanic Triumph) is a calm track, played by piano/synth. The only song is called The Throne Of Fire. Its a mid-tempo Black Metal track with a strong presence of atmospheric keyboard in the old Rotting Christ vein and good, evil vocals. The outro ...of Darkness is again a calm track, now played by an acoustic guitar. The demo sounds pretty Hellenic, but can´t reach the masters of that genre. And since this is the only recording of Goathrone, they cannot prove anymore that they´re able to improve their sound.

Writen by Skariotis

Heptameron - Blessed Be The Name Of The Dragon

In a time when all Black Metal bands decide to sound all the same, Heptameron decided differently. On their first demo (released in 2003) the two-men band decided to make metal in the vein of Varathron, old Celtic Frost and Darkthrone. Especially the first song Victims Of The Vampire sounds like a lost song of an early Varathron demo. Great riffing! Mainman and vocalist Necrofiend has a deep and powerful voice, just like Necroabyssious and he does not use typical high shrieks. On the following songs the band becomes faster, which is a bit sad, ´cause the first song kicks seriously ass. The other songs are not bad at all, but they are more in the Darkthrone style, maybe a bit more primitive. The last song is actually a Darkthrone cover, from the song Slottet I Det Fjerne. If you always wanted to listen to Darkthrone with Varathron-like vocals, I recommend that song to you. I don´t know how the vocals sound for Norwegians, as the lyrics are in Norwegian (while many Greek vocalists have even problems with the English language...), but all others will not hear many differences. All in all it´s a nice demo, which varies from todays Black Metal standard mediocrity.

Written By Skariotis

Homo Iratus - Absence Of Progress

Homo Iratus are by far the best Death Metal band, that emerged the last years from the Greek scene. Absence Of Progress was their first demo and was released in 1998. It contains six songs of grinding moshcore, as the band describes the sound and I cannot imagine a better description for that kind of music. Modern Death Metal with a few grind elements and cool mosh parts. What makes this demo so great is the professional songwriting and attitude, that the band already had on its first demo! The lyrics and songtitles of Homo Iratus are not typical Death Metal, no cliché gore lyrics or satanism, but criticism to today´s society and its unfair outcome. The songs are all equally very good, maybe Absence Of Progress is a bit better than the rest (this song appears on the band´s debut album, Human Consumes Human).
What a great beginning for Greece´s biggest Death Metal talents!

Written by Skariotis

Insane Court - Smash Down And Resist

This is Insane Court´s first release. As I got the CD, I didn´t notice any difference to an album that can be bought in the stores. It has a professional multi-page booklet with lyrics, and artwork from Set<H>. Nevertheless, the band calls it a demo! The music of Insane Court sounds like Pantera meets Dying Fetus, brutal riffing meets blastbeat attacks and vocals, which are not really growls but something between growls and aggressive singing. Astonishing debut for a young band! My only complaint is the short duration of the songs (eight songs with a total duration of 22 minutes, maybe that´s the reason to call the CD however a demo), but on the other hand, this short duration keeps the songs from becoming boring. The sound of the demo is above average, the drums are, compared to the guitar sound, just a bit too loud. If the band had put another three or four songs on the CD, they could easily name it their debut album, the quality is fulfilled. Contact the band to get your copy, if you like in-your-face metal, you get an album for a demo price!

Written by Skariotis

Insidead - Promo 2006

Insidead exists since 1997 but the Promo 2006 is the first serious release. The CD contains three songs of modern, powerful Thrash Metal. Influences seem to be US bands like Slayer or Nevermore but Insidead are rocking with slower speed and tons of groove. Paranoia has a heavy-grooving riff and singer George sounds like a mix of Tom Araya and James Hetfield. Just like Paranoia, the second track Sweet Misery has a very melodic refrain, on which George shows his abilities as singer. Last track is Blind Fate, which starts with a heavy, Iced Earthish riff and features some great guitar solos, reminding some older Megadeth-stuff, really well-played! The sound of these three songs is strong, and the band will hopefully convince a record label, so that we can enjoy a full album!

Written by Skariotis

Majeste Simphonia - Tragenda Dramatica

As Black Winter split (temporarily) in 2004, three members of them formed together with three other guys Majeste Simphonia. So Majeste Simfonia is something like a Black Winter side-project, which is now, as Black Winter exists again, on hold. The promo CD Tragenda Dramatica features two songs and was released in 2005. Majeste Simphonia is not a Black Metal band, but tend to this direction, due to the blackish vocals of Panos (Black Winter). The music is slower, calmer and more gothic-oriented, with a predominant symphonic keyboard. Both songs, Love Craft and Hymns can easily compete to the late COF-material and due to the better sound (!) they are maybe even superior. I would recommend the guys that beside Black Winter they should continue with Majeste Simphonia, ´cause this is qualitative material!

Written by Skariotis

Morpheus - Delomelanicon

Delomelanicon is Morpheus first demo. It was released in 2004. There are four tracks on that demo, including an intro and an outro. The band plays melodic Black Metal with two vocal styles, one growl and one shriek. The demo starts with the well-arranged symphonical intro Sic Luceat Lux. Sounds like a soundtrack for a horror movie! First real song is the title track Delomelanicon. It´s a good diverse song, with many varying parts. Its duration is over seven minutes long, but it doesn´t get boring due to the different riff and speed changes. Song two is An Addition To The Myth, with its duration of almost six minutes also a longer song. Like on the first track, the keyboard plays a major role in the music of Morpheus, but the guitar riffs are good as well. At the end there is the outro Aperture In Demise, like the intro an orchestral track. The sound of the demo is excellent, sounds like a good album production. The two songs are good examples of well-played melodic Black Metal, which do not sound like Dimmu Borgir or Cradle Of Filth at all (despite some undeniable influences). Hope to listen to more stuff from them in the future!

Written by Skariotis

Morpheus – Promo 2006

Morpheus returned in 2006 with their latest work, a promo CD of the upcoming album Extermination Of The Dominant Species. The promo CD features three songs (duration is over 17 minutes!) of that album and offers us a good introduction to the new music of Morpheus. The band surprised the Hellenic metal world in 2004 with the Delomelanicon demo, a fine piece of melodic Black Metal. With the promo 2006 they bring melodic Black Metal almost to perfection! If the new album has more of such strong songs as Under Morphine Skies, Fake Adoration Before Abomination and Melancholic Nostalgia In Black, then we have to expect a lot. Raging Black Metal attacks mixed with electronic FX, interrupted by calmer parts with operatic choirs and orchestral, majestic sounding keyboards. The sound is more than just competitive to international standards, it lifts the music levels higher! The recordings were done at the Nemesis Studio in Kavala, I´ve written it in reviews before, but I type it again: Nemesis makes the best productions in Greece! The mastering was done at Stage One Studio in Germany (Andy Classen). Morpheus are together with Transcending Bizzare the spearhead of the Hellenic melodic Black Metal scene! I can´t even think of the possibility that the band won´t find a competent label to release and promote Extermination Of The Dominant Species.

Written by Skariotis

Necranthemon - Immaterial Rhythmes

I couldn´t find any info of this band so I can´t write much about any other release. The Immaterial Rhythmes demo was released in 1994. There are four songs on the tape, which turn to the slow, gothic-influenced Black Metal direction. The slow riffs and the keys create a dark and melancholic atmosphere, and the vocals are swinging from deep growls to silent whispers. The guitars are often not distorted at all, so don´t expect much brutality, but lots of depressing atmosphere. Think of a slower, less brutal, but more melancholic version of the Hellenic band Zephyrous and you almost have an idea of the sound. Lyrically, the band deals with Greek and Norse mythology. The sound is as good as you can expect from a demo tape of the early 90´s. If you like slower, Gothic/Black Metal, this demo will surely fit in your collection!

Written by Skariotis

Necromantia - Promo Tape 90

This promo tape is the first sign of life of this Hellenic cult band. It was released by the band in 1990. The six songs on that tape belong to the most extreme songs the Greek (and European!)metal scene had to offer at that time. The band had three members then, Morbid (The Magus) on bass and vocals, Baron Blood on 8-string-bass and the member Slow Death for additional screams, whispers, howlings and backing vocals. Necromantia had the typical twin-bass sound since the beginning! The promo kicks off with the intense Family Of Dog (The Feast Of Ghouls), which later appeared on the legendary split EP with Varathron. This version is much rawer, as the sound of the whole tape. The second track is De Magia Veterum, which appeared later as bonus on the CD re-release of the Varathron split EP. It´s not a song and hard to describe. Imagine Satan is coming on earth to grill somebody, this is how de Magia Veterum sounds. This evil madness continues on the fourth track Evil Prayers, which is also on the Varathron split EP. Weird stuff, but black as hell. The third, the fifth and the sixth song are on the EP From The Past We Summon Thee, which was released in 1994. The songs are the grim Faceless Gods, the wolf-hymn Lycanthropia and the demonical invocation La Mort. Necromantia was never a band which made compromises and so is their first demo. From the six tracks, only three are real songs, but these songs are the most extreme music that came from Greece. They did the same on their debut album Crossing The Fiery Path, from the eight tracks there are only four real songs on it. Although there was no scene in 1990 we can call the Black Metal scene, Necromantia´s music is 100% of what we call today Black Metal and this promo tape is the evidence that Necromantia belongs to the forefront of the second generation of Black Metal in Europe!

Written by Skariotis

Necromantia - Demo ´93

This demo was released by the band just a few months before they released their debut album Crossing The Fiery Path. Maybe they got the deal with Osmose just because of this demo. Having an unfailing instinct, Osmose was the first record label which realised that a new generation of bands was rising from the depths of the European underground, gaining for worldwide recognition. Bands like Immortal, Rotting Christ, Impaled Nazarene, Samael and Necromantia would become the forefront of the second generation of Black Metal and Osmose signed them all. But let´s return to this demo. It contains two songs, The Warlock and Les Litanies De Satan, both of them will be featured later on their debut album. Both songs belong to the best songs that Crossing The Fiery Path offers. Both feature the whole variety that is typical for Hellenic Black Metal. Slow parts with atmospheric keyboards and demonic invocations are also present as the infernal fast parts, which differ Necromantia from the other Hellenic Black Metal bands. The time was right for Black Metal, the time was right for Necro´fucking´mantia!

Written by Skariotis

Necrorgasm - Disciples Of Dead Flesh

Necrorgasm is a new Death Metal band and Disciples Of Dead Flesh is their latest demo CD (released in 2006). The two band members Blood Junkie XL and Morgue deliver us six songs of furious Death Metal. All songs are about three minutes long and despite the brutality, quite catchy, ´cause the band didn´t messed the songwriting up with monotonous blastbeat orgies, but combines smartly fast and slow parts. Last song is a rather unusual cover for a Death Metal band, it´s a cover-version of Bathory´s Raise The Dead. Morgue proves that, beside his growls, he can also scream pretty vile (why doesn´t he use it more frequently?). My only complaint is the drum sound of the drum machine, it sounds too clinical, there´s no power behind it (especially on the blastbeat parts). But I´ve read that the band completeted its line-up with some more members, including a drummer, so that problem belongs to the past! Death Metal fans, check them out!

Written by Skariotis

Nightfall - Vanity

Nightfall released their first (and only) demo in 1991. The result was the contract with the French label Holy Records, which later will release many Nightfall albums.

The demo contains one macabre intro, one outro and four songs. The intro, L´amour Es Triste, is so macabre, nobody would put such a "song" on the beginning of a metal demo. The music is so beautiful, happy voices singing happy melodies and creating a very heavenly atmosphere. An atmosphere, which will be destroyed absolutely after the first seconds of the first song, For My Soul, When The Dark Falls Into..., a great song which combines a fine mix between Death Metal and atmospheric keyboards, this will become a trademark of Nightfall. What an opposition to the intro! Next song Vanity hits in the same direction as the first song, but this can be said for the whole demo. Song three is The Passage, maybe the best song, traditional, fast Death/Thrash Metal, which takes no prisoners. The fourth track is Crying Out The Fear Within, which reaches easily the level of The Passage. Last song is the keyboard outro Domestication Of Wildness.

All these songs appear also on the Nightfall debut album, Parade Into Centuries, which was also the first Holy Records album ever released! Generally it can be said, that Nightfalls music was more into traditional Death/Thrash Metal, something that got lost with Nightfall´s second release, Macabre Sunsets.

Written by Skariotis

Nightfall – Promotape Oh Black Queen, Oh You’re Mine

This promo tape is musically identical to the 7” EP from Molon Lave Records. It contains the two songs As Your God’s Failing Once Again and Enormous/The Anthem Of The Death and it was released by Holy Records in 1993. Just the cover is not the same. Both, EP and promo tape were made for the same purpose: to promote the second Nightfall album Macabre Sunsets, which was released in the same year. It is a short example for Macabre Sunsets, as both songs were chosen well to give a quick imagination of the album. As I wrote on the EP review, Enormous is not really a good song for a two-song-release, but it fits better on the whole album.

Written by Skariotis

No Hand Path - First Farewell

No Hand Path was formed in early 2006. In the summer of 2006 they already recorded their first work, the demo First Farewell. It sounds that the juvenile age pushed the band to record its first work very fast, so I expected that I would listen to an amateurish demo with simple songwriting and bad sound. But the exact opposite is the truth. The band takes us to a travel far away, into the dark shores of Black Metal. The song titles fit, the songs´ names are The Deepest Journey, The Darkest Journey and The Longest Journey. All three songs are long in duration and paint a dark and depressive picture, due to the sophisticated songwriting of the band, which combines fast Black Metal with calm and very opressive acoustic elements. I have to think of Satyricon´s masterpiece Rebel Extravaganza, as I´m listening to the demo. It´s not easy to create a dark atmosphere without the use of keyboards, but No Hand Path does not seem to have a problem with that. Their only tools are the riffing, the drumming and the vocals, but with these spare ingredients they manage to create a gloomy atmosphere and a dark mood. Such a professional release at this early stage is very rare, compared to other demo debuts of other bands. The sound is brilliant for a demo, every instrument sounds crystal clear. No Hand Path doesn´t invent something new with First Farewell, but the band took the already existing musical facts of the Black Metal scene and created a demo which simply sounds better than many other releases of the stagnating scene! Visit the band´s homepage and get the demo online, as long as this is possible!

Written by Skariotis

Nordor - Ceremony Of Demonic Brutality

Nordor is a Black/Death Metal band existing since the early 90´s. The drums are played by Gore, the vocalist of Horrified. The Ceremony Of Demonic Brutality demo came out in 1991. It features an intro and two songs. The intro The Apocalypse is a demonic spoken word invocation in Latin. The two songs are Indelible Violation and Your Grave Is A Grand Cross. The music can be described as slow, primitive, satanic Death/Black Metal. Singer/guitar player and mainman False Prophet has a powerful Death Metal voice. Concerning the songwriting, the songs are very raw and primitive and the guitar solos are weird and sloping. This demo is only for underground fanatics, all other: hands off!

Written by Skariotis

Nordor - His Fictitious Grandeur

Nordor released the second demo in 1993, with the help of Obscure Plasma Records. The sound is much better than the sound of the first demo. The music is still slow, raw Death/Black Metal. The demo starts with The End Of Necronomicon, a calm track with evil and very bestial vocals. The two main songs are Inside The Clouds and Labyrinth, both primitive Death Metal songs and pretty satanic. Last track is an instrumental outro, The Entering Into The Psychotic Dimensions. Again we have some very evil distorted voices, sounds like a demon is born or something like that. Nordor´s second demo continues the path of the first, but it is a small improvement concerning the sound and the songwriting.

Written by Skariotis

Nordor - To Sperma Tou Satana

Four years after their second demo, Nordor released in 1997 their third demo (called Satan´s sperm). Mainman False Prophet is now the only member of the band and plays all instruments except the drums. He doesn´t seem to be a friend of changes, so Nordor kept the specific style of slow, satanic Death Metal. Sound is better than ever now. Signs of progression are the short parts at the beginning of each song, which are recorded from movies or television. The demo starts with Nystagmus a calm instrumental intro. Then comes God Dog and I must say that Nordor learned to write songs at last. Still primitive but easier to listen. The Calling Of The Nereid begins for Nordor´s usual level fast, for other bands it is mid-tempo. New Age features a demonic keyboard and evil distorted spoken words. Last is Mary´s Holy Fuck With The Lily, you hear a woman moaning, taken by an adult movie. This is by far the best Nordor track, ´cause the moaning sounds more professional than Nordor´s music!

Written by Skariotis

NYNE - Demo 2006

NYNE formed in the year 2002 and the demo 2006 is their first release. It contains four tracks and has a remarkable strong sound, not usual for a first demo. On these four tracks, NYNE are mixing Black Metal with orchestral elements and also with electronic sounds. The orchestral parts remind a bit the later Dimmu Borgir stuff, but NYNE has also these electronic sounds, which bring the mighty Greek band The Elysian Fields to my mind. The band accomplished it easily, to cross these parts with powerful, modern Black Metal. But despite the dominance of the keyboard and the synths, the music is far from being soft or a sell-out. There are plenty of blastbeat parts in their songs, but in my opinion they can abandon most of them, ´cause the sound is much stronger when they play slower or mid-tempo stuff. The band is in search for a label contract now, I hope that with such a strong demo their search will be succesful!

Written by Skariotis

Overgarven - Promo 2005

Overgarven exists since 2001. The line-up featured members of the band Crossover, which come from the same city, Alexandroupolis. Overgarven means some kind of uniform/mask, which is used in chemical warfare. Despite this warlike name, Overgarven do not play ultra-brutal Death Metal, but melodic Death Metal. Promo 2005 is their second release, their first was the Promo 2003. Promo 2005 contains five songs, all taken from their debut album Just A Fake, which will be released hopefully in 2006. First of all, the sound is good and can compete to international standards. In contrary to millions of melodic Death Metal bands, Overgarven do not sound like a band from Gothenburg, Sweden, so my fears that this will be just another In Flames clone disappeared. Overgarven´s basement for their songs are catchy Heavy Metal riffs and not Maiden-rip-off melodies. Singer Kostas has a good voice, which turns more into the Black Metal direction. The adoption of guest vocals (female and male) puts more variety into the vocals and are a nice contrast to the screams of Kostas. Good examples for this are the songs Bleeding World and Let Me Die. There are no fast and brutal parts in Overgarven´s songs and a keyboard is used very rarely. The song Just A Fake is the best song of the promo CD, but the other songs are not far away of its quality. Especially the oriental-sounding riff of ...Rehenta kicks ass as well! I hope that Overgarven will find a proper record label, so their debut album will be released soon!

Written by Skariotis

Ravencult - Despise The Blindfold

Ravencult´s first sign of life is this four-track demo. The band released Despise The Blindfold in 2002. The line-up is: Kostas (bass), Jim (vocals), Stefanos (guitars) and Panayotis (drums). Their style is Black Metal with a strong Greek influence from bands like Rotting Christ or Varathron. The Vortex Of Superior Grimness has a great epic-medieval sounding riff. Forever Nailed is the fastest song on the demo, primitive but very effective. Supreme Cosmic Union is a mid-tempo track with some cool, thrashy riffs and melodies. The demo ends with Darkest Shade Of Black, which is more diverse and the longest track, but of the same high quality as the other three songs.

Great demo! The world needs more Ravencult!

Written by Skariotis

Ravencult - Cosmic Chaos

Cosmic Chaos is Ravencult´s second demo. It differs musically from the first, the music is faster, thrashier and more aggressive. There is also a new drummer, Konstantinos. Again there are four songs on the demo. Pure Hellish Blasphemy is not only the opener, but the motto of the demo! Cosmic Chaos Pandemonium tends to the same direction with some very cool riffs and many tempo changes. Deathcult Supremacy takes no prisoners too! The last song, Manifestation Of The Essence, is the only track which has some similarities to the first demo, it is a fantastic, epic mid-tempo-track. What happened to Ravencult? Too much caffeine? The brutality increased a lot. The band changed in the way of songwriting, but it still remains very unique and all songs on the demo will suit to every Black Metal fan on this planet!

Again a high-quality release from Ravencult!

Written by Skariotis

Rex Infernus - Triumphalia Ornamenta

Rex Infernus was the one-man project of a guy called Ruthven. With the help of Panos (from Zephyrous) he recorded this demo tape in 1995. The demo contains four tracks of introvert, atmospheric Black Metal, not very far away from the Zephyrous style. The demo begins with the intro The Secret Aisle Of Lust. Second track is Dii Te Ament Satan, a song that could be on the first Zephyrous album as well. Same production, especially the guitars and the keyboards and similar songwriting. The third track is not a song but a calm keyboard tune called Neania Christus, which gets really atmospheric and majestic in the middle. Last song is the title track Triumphalia Ornamenta, which is not really a Black Metal song, but a dark Gothic Rock song, reminding the later Zephyrous material. Since this demo from 1995, there is nothing more released under the banner of Rex Infernus.

Written by Skariotis

Rotting Christ - Satanas Tedeum

After their grindcore split EP with Sound Pollution, Rotting Christ decided to change their music style and play a kind of metal, that influenced them more than other metal styles. Metal, that bands like Venom, Bathory and Celtic Frost created in the early/mid 80´s, called Black Metal! In opposite to Death Metal, this was not only a musical categorisation, but mainly a lyrical. The attitude of a Black Metal band had (and has) to be rigorous anti-religious. The using of satanic symbols and satanic lyrics in order to rebel against any form of organised religion is the main spiritual aspect behind this kind of metal music. From this demo, Rotting Christ will follow this musical path and will become one of the leaders of the "Second Generation Of Black Metal" movement. In 1989, as they released Satanas Tedeum, they called their music "Abyssic Death Metal", because there was no established appelation for their music. Black Metal was a general term, every metal band could be (Danzig has satanic lyrics, this could also be Black Metal).

The first track is The Hills Of The Crucifixion, a raw and brutal song (like the whole demo), with some slow parts, good headbangin´stuff. Next song is Feast Of The Grand Whore, which later was released in a new version on the split EP with Monumentum. This song is unique on the demo, because it is from its start till its end a slow Death/Black Metal piece, which in the end features the insertion of atmospheric keyboards, something that at that time nobody did and that will become a trademark of Rotting Christ´s music and generally for Hellenic Black Metal. Song three is The Nereid Of Esgalduin, a much faster song than the previous one, but it also contains the use of keyboard in its slow parts. This song will be released in a new version on their Dawn Of The Iconoclast EP. The last tracks, Restoration Of The Infernal Kingdom and The Sixth Communion are both, as their predecessors, evil hymns of rough Black Metal.

Due to the fact, that this release is one of the real classics of Black Metal, but totally sold out, as only a few copies were made in MC format, Unisound Records released it in 1994 as CD. This is probably the only version you can find on the market (especially on ebay). Unisound released it later also on a CD which is called The Mystical Meeting. This CD features the Passage To Arcturo EP and the Satanas Tedeum demo. Note that this is no official release from the band, but a rip-off from Unisound Records, which had the copyrights on these releases!

There is another re-release of that demo, it was released from Kyrck Productions as a 12" vinyl in the year 2006. Finally, the demo got the treatment it deserves! The music is completely remastered, one side of the LP is etched and looks great! The music comes in combination with a poster, that shows the band at the time of the demo release, and a sticker! It is strictly limited to 666 handnumbered copies!

Written by Skariotis

Rotting Christ - Ade´s Winds

The band released this demo tape in 1992 and sent it to different record labels as promo tape. So they got their first record contract with the French label Osmose Productions, which released 1993 their debut album Thy Mighty Contract.

There are two songs on this demo, Fgmenth, Thy Gift and The Fourth Knight Of Revelation I & II. Both songs are slow/mid-tempo metal-monsters and appeared later on Thy Mighty Contract. Fgmenth, Thy Gift with its headbanging rhythm and The Fourth Knight Of Revelation which is mystical Black Metal par excellence, showed the direction, Thy Mighty Contract would take!

Written by Skariotis

Rotting Flesh - Follow The End...

Follow The End... is Rotting Flesh´s fifth demo CD. It was released by the band in the year 1998. Like all later demos from Rotting Flesh, there are much more songs included than the typical three or four. The Rotting Flesh demos have seven till nine songs and so has Follow The End, which features nine tracks, including an intro and outro. The music of the band can be described as, you maybe noticed it from the band´s name, a mixture of Septic Flesh and Rotting Christ. Of course this description fits to many Greek bands of the 1990´s, so it´s better to say that Rotting Flesh plays moderate and melodic Black/Death Metal. There aren´t any grinding blastbeat parts on the demo, the band´s music is based more on mid-tempo riffing and to the omnipresent keyboard. The riffs remind the origin of the band, they´re typically Greek, the voice of Bob is almost as deep and great as the voice of Set<H>, and he can scream also in higher tones. On some songs, the use of the keyboard is too much for my ears, but that´s just my personal taste. The band plays some nice songs on Follow The End, like Lethal Blasphemy, Realms Beyond Heaven or The Inheritors Of War. The sound is good for a self-produced demo CD. The difference to the mentioned bigger Greek bands is, that Rotting Flesh´s songs are indeed nice and well-performed, but too harmless and offenseless! The music needs a bigger portion of aggression and less usage of the dulcet and calm keyboard. All in all it´s a nice demo CD!

Written by Skariotis

Sector Illusion - Demo 2006

Sector Illusion is a band from the island of Syros and various members of the band were in a Doom Metal band before. Sector Illusion is not a Doom Metal band, but there are surely influences of that genre in the first demo, simply called Demo 2006. The four songs on it are drifting between doomish riffing (early Black Sabbath), catchy and modern Hard Rock melodies and vocals from the madhouse (probably Burzum´s jail...). Unusual experiment, but it sounds not bad at all! The question, if it´s metal (particularly: what kind of metal?) is quickly forgotten, as you sink deeper and deeper into the just four songs. A whole album would be a monster! The production is crystal clear, very good for a demo. Such music doesn´t even need cover artwork. Well done!

Written by Skariotis

Shores Of Sheol - Revelations

The crazy Austrian returned with new material! No full year has passed after the release of the debut album Monumentum and there´s already a new demo. There are three new songs on Revelations, with the main difference to the album, that this time all songs have many fast parts, whereas the album got seldom fast. Except this difference, everything else remain in the vein of Monumentum. The guitar riffs are still totally in the old Varathron and Rotting Christ direction, but Shores Of Sheol still remain much rawer than these two bands. Beherit can be named as possible influence. I still argue with myself, if the sound of Shores Of Sheol is accomplished due to factors in the recording process, or, what I believe more and more, this is absolutely the wanted result of the mainman Sathur. A bass is hardly listenable, the drums are programmed in a very simple, but effective way and the vocals are often not only one voice, but recorded many different times and overlayed in the mixing. So you can hear many times besides the powerful, normal deep voice also extremely high shrieks and additional screams. The guitars are, as I said, much faster than on the album, they got a warm sound and reminds me the sound of Rotting Christ´s Thy Mighty Contract album. The complete sound Of Shores Of Sheol is an unholy mixture, unique, raw and not very friendly for extensive commercialisation. But I think, if Sathur would have wanted to sell much with his music, he would sound like Cradle Of Filth or Dimmu Borgir and would not have chosen some obscure Greek bands as influence! Get the demo on the official site, as long as this is possible!

Written by Skariotis

Shores Of Sheol - The Nomad

Our site´s only non-Hellenic exception, the Austrian one-man band Shores Of Sheol strikes again with a new demo. The Nomad features four tracks of the typical mix of old Varathron meets primitivity. In contrary to the last releases, the music has changed slightly. A flute is sometimes used, reminding the old stuff of Kawir. The songs sound more fluently, there is an influence of Agatus audible in the riffing and there are even melodies played (check out Gods Of The Tribe and Icons Of Desolation)! The outro Sehnsucht clarify this, it remembers strongly the Agatus songs When The Macabre Dance Begins and L´Arrivee De La Victoire. The sound remained almost the same as on their previous releases, a predominant guitar sound with very simply played drums. The bass is mixed better this time. Vocals are often overlapped, you can hear deep growls and high shrieks simultaneously. Shores Of Sheol delivered us again a nice bunch of songs, which sound absolutely not modern at all, but stick on a more primitive form of Hellenic Black Metal of the mid 1990´s. Fans (you know who you are) should check them out, not just for nostalgic reasons.

Written by Skariotis

Shores Of Sheol – Forlorn Realms

In a time where most Greeks forgot that bands from their own country were once a driving force in the so called “second generation of Black Metal”, due to their very own sound and songwriting, which nowadays is not continued by newer Greek bands, one guy from Austria remembers. Marko chose not to follow the standardisation of global Black Metal (True Norwegian Black Metal from Peru..., Viking Metal from Germany...). Even if he’s not from Greece, there is no other description for his music than Hellenic Black Metal! Forlorn Realms, the title fits also as a description for the forgotten Hellenic Black Metal genre.

Hellenic, due to the musical factors which were created from Greek bands in the early 1990’s and became typical for a whole scene! Contrary, today, some Black Metal bands from Greece state that they play Hellenic Black Metal. This is not true. They are Black Metal bands from Hellas. But the music they play could also be from South Africa or Russia. Standard Black Metal. I’m not against these bands, far from it, there are many talented young Black Metal bands in Greece and I enjoy their music a lot. But all of them do not play Hellenic Black Metal, they hardly follow the musical path of the originators of the past.

And this brings us to Shores Of Sheol again (I’m sorry, but I had to make this excursus). Forlorn Realms is called the new demo, which was released in 2007. A simply description: this is the best work up to this date from Shores Of Sheol. But I should write a few more information. The demo begins with The Return To Gaia. Its riff in the beginning makes it immediately clear, this is Black Metal in the old Greek way. It gets pretty fast in the middle, nice contrast to the opening and ending riff! Second song is Dreams Of Eternal Torment. It’s unbelievable, how much Marko internalised the influences of Varathron, Kawir, Agatus and Rotting Christ and how these influences formed his own songwriting. The culmination of all these influences is surely the third track, A Collection Of Guilt, not only the best track of the demo, but also the masterpiece of Shores Of Sheol. Sounds like Varathron would have made a song together with Agatus in the year 1994. What a riff! The demo ends with the short but fast instrumental Acheron.

Shores Of Sheol continued on the path of The Nomad demo, adding more melodies and keyboards in the background. The songwriting is now more precise and more variable, not just riff-rhythm-vocals-end. But the main aspect is still the slow riffing in typical Hellenic tradition and it is not so primitive anymore. Marko still uses a drum machine, but it sounds by far better than on Monumentum. His vocals are still very deep and powerful, sometimes distorted (maybe that’s the only spare thing on the demo). Great development!

Written by Skariotis

Slejpnir - Channeling The Disharmony

Slejpnir are from the beautiful city of Ioannina in Northern Greece. The mountainous landscape full of woods, lakes and caves, maybe inspired the band to sound like Black Metal from the glorious Norwegian scene, ´cause Slejpnir have not only the typical grim and fast sound, but also the iciness and the harshness of old Darkthrone albums. The band´s name is also derived from Nordic mythology, Slejpnir (or Slejpner) is the eight-legged horse of mighty Odin, and the greatest of all horses. The demo contains the intro Rinpjels and six more songs. The sound of the demo is typical cold and harsh, also the songwriting, the playing and the screams of the musicians. The production fits well to that grim, icy music. There are also some keys, but just silent in the background. Reviewing demos from new Greek bands (including Slejpnir), I have to ask myself, if Greece is full of misanthropic Black Metal maniacs, ´cause there are many bands which try and manage to sound more Norwegian than the Norwegians! Slejpnir deliver a pretty fine job. Give them a try if you are into that music, horns up for them!

Written by Skariotis

Thou Art Lord - The Cult Of The Horned One

"This release is an answer to all the trendies that nowadays poison our precious music: BLACK METAL." Big words that nowadays are used by every underground Black Metal band are nothing special. But this statement is from Thou Art Lord made in the year 1993, as this demo was released by the band. Thou Art Lord´s goal was always to sound brutal and evil and playing Black Metal which takes no prisoners. This is the only reason of existence of this infernal project. The three tracks of that demo are the same which are also on their Diabolou Archaes Legeones EP and on the split EP with Ancient Rites: The Era Of Satan Rising..., Praising The Impure and In Blood We Trust. All three tracks keep the band´s promise very well. The music is a fast and furious mixture between Death and Black Metal with satanic lyrics. But I would recommend the EPs instead of the demo, due to better sound quality.

Written by Skariotis

Tragedy Begins - Thanatos & Katastrophe

Thanatos & Katastrophe (= Death & Destruction) is the second Tragedy Begins "album". It was released by french Forgotten Wisdom Productions in 2004 as a cassette album in very few numbers (ca. 700 copies). It features twelve own songs and one cover-version of the Mayhem song Chainsaw Gutsfuck. It´s described as a full-length, but the sound quality and the songwriting differs a lot, so I compared it to prior releases of Tragedy Begins and I found out, that many songs on it were already released in the past. I think it´s a compilation album with a few new songs, rather then a brand new album. Tragedy Begins plays Black Metal and the songs with the better sound tend to more progression and have a touch of industrial music. In contrary, there are some songs which have a really bad sound and they sound like 100% true Norwegian Black Metal. The progressive songs are the best, I think that the band can build on this base in the future, whereas their old songs cannot convince. They are too mediocre and this kind of music is played already by too much bands. We´ll see how they´ll progress in the future.

Written by Skariotis

Twilight - Darkest Odes

Twilight is a raw Black Metal band from Thessaloniki, Northern Greece. Darkest Odes is the first demo tape and it was released in 1992. It contains five songs and one outro. The vocalist, Odes From Absu is also in the band Cthonium. His voice is maybe the strongest thing on the Darkest Odes demo, really violent and blasphemous! The music is mainly fast and aggressive Black Metal, but not so grim and barbaric as Cthonium. When Twilight unleash their fury, they sound similar to old Impaled Nazarene, but when they slower the speed, they add keyboard sounds and become almost a typical Greek Black Metal band of the early 90´s, remaining more close to the old Samael sound. The bad thing on that demo is the sound quality, which is really weak. The music itself is pure, unholy Black Metal, absolutely not suitable for any commercialisation and millions of miles away from today´s Black Metal pop stars. So check Darkest Odes only if you can appreciate the efforts of the many bands of that time, which emerged in the early 90´s in Europe, and built the basements of today´s scene!

Written by Skariotis

Unholy Archangel – Unholy Archangel

Unholy Archangel is a Black Metal band with pagan lyrics about ancient Greece. The homonymous demo was their first, it was released in the year 1997. Lyrically they seem to be similar to Kawir, but musically they are far away. Their songwriting seems to be a senseless linking of different riffs, accompanied with a hyperblast drum computer and some mediocre growls. The sound is, even for a demo production, not good.

Written by Skariotis

Unholy Archangel – Archgoat Incantation

Unholy Archangel´s second demo was released in 1998. Not much has changed since the first demo. It is still hellish Black Metal, which sounds very primitive, maybe because the skills of the members are not the best. They seem to have a real drummer now, but he plays every ten seconds a mistake, really amateurish behaviour. The songwriting evolved not much, they must be bloody beginners, or untalented songwriters. There is also a Sarcofago-cover called Deathrash on that demo.

Written by Skariotis

Unholy Archangel - 3 Way Spit Of Violence

Unholy Archangel released this demo together with the bands Lust and Kult. The band contributes six songs inclusive an intro and outro. It was released in 2000. Luckily, for the first time there is an improvement in their music. Even if the music is still primitive and barbaric, they now have also slower parts in their songs and there is something, someone could describe as songwriting. I wish they will hopefully evolve more in the future until their first album.

Written by Skariotis

Uranus - The Clang Of Lances

Uranus is a pagan Black Metal band. Their sound can be described as typical Greek, slow metal riffs with some keys, Greek folk melodies and a few female vocals. The lyrics are influenced by ancient Hellas and are bilingual, English and ancient Greek. There are five songs on this demo, Angaeus, With My Tunes To Gods I Talk, Chthonie Skiptouche, The Clang Of Lances and the instrumental Delphikon. The atmosphere is quite good, but it cannot reach the height of a band like Kawir. But this is just the first demo of Uranus (released in 1998), so they´ll have the chance to make their songwriting more precise. The basement for a good album is already there!

Written by Skariotis

Varathron - Procreation Of The Unaltered Evil

This is the first sign of existence of this influential Greek band. It was released from the band in the year 1989 and contains two songs, Necranastasis and Dawn Of Sordid Decay.
Necranastasis begins with quiet acoustic guitars and the demonic voice of Necroabyssious, before a sharp Thrash Metal riff is breaking the silence, followed by the other wild raging instruments. This song kicks ass! There are also some mid-tempo parts as breaks from the inferno. The whole song is six and a half minutes long but there is no boredom at all. Second song, Dawn Of Sordid Decay, is a bit similar, but shorter in duration, only three minutes long, with ripping Thrash Metal riffs, reminding Kreator. The music is a fine mix of satanic Thrash/Death Metal, as the term Black Metal was not used often before the so-called "Second Generation of Black Metal" and Varathron belongs to the creators of this movement too!
This release was Varathron´s first, since that time they could easily claim themselves as one of Greece´s leading Metal bands!

Written by Skariotis

Varathron - Genesis Of Apocryphal Desire

In 1991, Varathron released their second demo, which contains four songs and an outro. The first track is called La Reine Noir, a great Thrash Metal song with varying speed. Next song, Genesis Of Apocryphal Desire, is in the same vein. Song three is The Tressrising Of Nyarlathotep, a song that influenced the future music style of Varathron. The song is over seven minutes long and full of the slow breath-taking riffs, that would became Varathron´s trademark! With this composition, Varathron left the path of the good, but exchangeable Thrash/Death Metal and marked a music style, that will become typical for a whole scene! Last songs is Seven Endless Horizons, a faster track, turning after a while to the "Nyarlathotep direction". At last is the outro Journey Beyond. A very good demo, which made some noise in the underground in 1991!

Written by Skariotis

Varathron - Live At The Swamp

This recording was released in MC format in 2004 by Polish label Time Before Time Records and it is limited to 333 copies. It is divided in two parts, the first part is a live gig (or maybe a live rehearsal with some friends, sounds like they have their fun...) and the second part is a rehearsal recording without audience. Both recordings are from 1991. The material they played is from their demo Genesis Of Apocryphal Desire and from their 7" EP One Step Beyond Dreams. The sound is very raw, sometimes bad, but still acceptable for an underground recording!

The live gig contains the following songs: Descent Of A Prophetic Vision, Genesis Of Apocryphal Desire, the band hymn The Tressrising Of Nyarlathotep, Seven Endless Horizons, a cover version of Death´s Pull The Plug and two songs that are unknown to me, one is probably a cover version of a Terrorizer song! During the last live song there is an abrupt end and the second part, the recording in the rehearsal room, begins. The second part contains three songs, but they are no others than the same songs, we listened on the live recording. So we have again Descent Of A Prophetic Vision, again Seven Endless Horizons and again The Tressrising Of Nyarlathotep.

Very unprofessional job, why do Varathron give the rights for such an amateurish release? I don´t think this was released without permission, where did they get the taped live recordings? There isn´t even a song list on the booklet, so the fan has to guess the songs and due to the bad sound it is not easy. And what happens with fans who don´t know these songs at all? This cassette has some kind of cult character, but couldn´t they do it a bit more professional? This could be the "Live In Leipzig" of the Hellenic Black Metal scene, if it was released as it was recorded and with more professionalism! Strange attitude...

Written by Skariotis

Varathron - Sarmutius Pegorus Promo Tape 1997

The promo tape was recorded in 1997. At that time, Varathron was searching for a label, so the band sent copies of this tape to record labels. There are three tracks on that demo. The first song is The Grim Palace, which appears also on the re-release of His Majesty At The Swamp CD (released in 2001) as bonus song and as regular song in a slightly different version on their Crowsreign album (released in 2004). This song really kicks ass! The second track is Spirit Of the Tomb, a calm instrumental. Last song is The Vision Of A Nameless Soul, again a great Black Metal song in the typical Varathron style. The last two songs will appear also on the Crowsreign album, but as new recordings. After that promo tape, Varathron got a deal with Polish Pagan Records, which released in 1998 the mediocre The Lament Of Gods mini CD. I wonder why there is no killer song from this tape on that CD. All three songs are much better than that stuff. Luckily all three songs are released by the band on their great comeback album Crowsreign!

Written by Skariotis

Veil - Forest Oblivion

Forest Oblivion is Veil´s first recording. The demo features seven songs, including one intro and one outro. After the calm intro Stillbirth, the music begins with the track called Condemned. A strong riff in best Varathron manner breaks the silent. Yeah, I didn´t know that there are still bands in Greece which play metal that way. Veil´s music is really influenced by the old Hellenic scene, slow riffs with atmospheric keyboards in the right place. The title track Forest Oblivion tends to the same direction and has a very cool guitar solo. Fatal Serenades starts with acoustic guitars and singer Aristoteles is singing here with his clean voice, which sounds not bad at all. This song is also full of really good guitar solos, I think the guitar players Anastasses and Chris are doing a very good job on this demo. Death Conspiracy turns again into the path of the first two tracks and reminds old Rotting Christ or Varathron. The band put some blastbeat parts into that song, the first fast parts on this demo. The last song Betrayal Of The Flesh starts furiously, on the fast parts, the vocals sounds even more powerfully. The demo ends with the outro March Of The Damned. Despite the young age of the band members (average age is 19), the music of Veil has good songwriting and reminds the old Hellenic Black/Death Metal scene of the early 90´s. This demo would fit perfectly to the year 1993. The musicians are skillful and the production is really good for a demo, only the drums sound a bit dull. Some parts are sloping a little bit, but that happens often in the first release of a young band. I hope that I`ll listen to more material of the band in the future!

Written by Skariotis

Violet Vortex - Indulge In Reverie

Violet Vortex are a Stoner Rock/Doom Metal band. Their music is influenced by Black Sabbath and St. Vitus. Indulge In Reverie was released in 1999 and is the first demo of the band. It contains five songs, the rocking Nunny Song, the epic A Sun That Never Shines, the calm acoustic interlude Wisdom Blades (Cut Deepest), the up-tempo Secrets, the title track Indulge In Reverie and at the end a hidden track, a cover of Black Sabbath´s Planet Caravan. The songwriting is very good and the songs are all enjoyable. A good start for this likeable band!

Written by Skariotis

Vorphalack - Black Sorrow For A Dead Brother

Two years after the brilliant 7" EP Under The Sight Of Dragon, Vorphalack released this two-song demo in 1995. But the line-up had changed, only vocalist Lord Alatoth stayed from the old line-up. And so it is no surprise, that Vorphalack´s music changed rapidly. The EP was a fine mix between Varathron and Iron Maiden, a cult release of the Hellenic underground. The music now is a mix between Norwegian Black Metal with a Hellenic touch. The vocals are high pitched Black Metal, and remind early Dani Filth (or generally the Norwegian scene). The music is not Varathron-like anymore, but faster and the keyboards are still present. Song one is Miserable Brother, a fast song with the strongest Hellenic feeling on this demo, Song two is In Search For Glory, a very melodic Black Metal song.

Despite the changes, this demo is not bad at all, but it has nothing to do with the band who recorded the EP. It is a little bit too ordinary, ´cause the typical Hellenic sound disappeared almost totally. This demo could also had come from a Norwegian melodic Black Metal band or from a Cradle Of Filth-oriented band. For the band´s sake I have to mention, that in 1995 COF was not very known outside UK, so I don´t think Vorphalack copied somebody and COF was more aggressive at that time, whereas Vorphalack was much more melodic.

Written by Skariotis

Zemial - Necrolatry Promo Tape

Vorskaath decided in the year 1997 to record an unpolished and raw demo tape, containing material that was played from the band at that time. So he and his brother Eskarth entered a rehearsal room and recorded some songs with a simple four-track-recorder. They put four tracks of that session on the tape and released it as a promo tape called Necrolatry. Every one of that four songs, Eclipse, Dragon´s Touch (The Eyes Of Fire), Nocturnal Witch and Possessed By Twilight, belong to the best the band ever released and are until today the faves of many fans at their gigs! The demand of the tape was so overwhelming that the label Iron Pegasus got the license to release Necrolatry on vinyl format in a very limited edition with another great song and one outro as bonus (Breath Of The Pestilence). In 2006, the band released Necrolatry also on CD format, together with the Face Of The Conqueror EP, so today it´s not very difficult to get your that songs! Please look at our EP review section for a detailed review of the music!

Written by Skariotis