Demonica

So I was browsing through an FYE and not finding a whole lot. Then I saw this thing sticking out of a Behemoth rack and picked it up. At first glance I thought it was a DVD but after reading the sticker and the back I knew it was music. Not only that but it was a bunch of unreleased tracks and Demos from Behemoth's black metal days. I also saw that it had covers of Hellhammer's Aggressor and Mayhem's Deathcrush! Then I saw the limited to 10000 copies sticker and was sold.

It begins with the "Return of the Northern Moon" demo. As a black metal fan I was thoroughly impressed by this demos production. Somehow Behemoth found the perfected midground between good production and raw production. Unlike a lot of black metal releases you can distinctly cut apart the guitars, from the vocals and the drums. But it's still surprisingly raw and has none of that clean shit that wanna black metal bands like Dimmu Burger have. Return of the Northern Moon is good, it has an old school black metal feel, somewhere along the lines of Darkthrone and Beherit. The Aggressor (Hellhammer) cover is interesting. You know it's a nice contrast when you move into that punchy groove that Hellhammer has and it still maintains a black metal feel with the vocalist doing his best Tom G Warrior impersonation. Cursed Angel of Doom is a very strong track and one of m favorites. Do yourself a favor and skip the rerecording of Transylvanian Forest though. It was recorded during the Demigod session so it has their new Death metal feel to it... You know with the vocalists hyper mechanical vocals that make Arch Enemy's recent releases sound like the rawest most brutal thing ever.

Disc Two holds the "From the Pagan Vastlands" demo on it and I can only say one thing about this piece of black metal... "God... Damn..." The first song, "From Hornedlands to Lindisfarne" starts off with an eastern acoustic guitar and then kicks in with a tremeloing black metal guitar riff all accompanied by an Emperoresque synth playing through the background. The awesomeness doesn't stop there, Behemoth seem intent on kicking you teeth out with the rest of this demo. "Return of the Northern Moon" was good but "From the Pagan Vastlands" is where Behemoth throw so many other black metal bands into the gutter. My favorite tracks are probably: "From Hornedlands to Lindisfarne" and "The Dance of the Pagan flames". The Deathcrush cover is good, too. I just thought I'd mention that.

This CD is for fans of bands like Emperor, Darkthrone, Mayhem, and Hellhammer. Probably not for fans of Dimmun Burger or Behemoth's Demigod taping. Unless of course those fans also happen to be fans of the aforementioned black metal bands.

On a side note: This set also comes with a 44 page booklet which includes all song lyrics, and some writing from th band along with some interesting photos and artwork.