Bloodlust and Perversion

Hearing demos can be either awesome or torture. Sometimes you hear the first demo of a now established band and ask yourself how the fuck they have acquired their current skills. Usually first demos are dead boring and absolutely shit, but there are reasons for that. First of all, it is mostly because bands are founded as a hobby and fun project and sometimes a serious musical institution develops from it. If this is the case, then a second demo can appear much more professional and mature.

An example of this is Nattefrost's black chapel of unholy orgies, Carpathian Forest. After their first demo "Black Winds" and the renaming from Enthrone to Carpathian Forest, Mr. Nattefrost and his buddy Nordavind (at that time both still under the pseudonyms Lord Nosferatu and Lord Karnstein) recorded a second demo with the help of a dubious drummer named Lord Blackmangler, who has probably disappeared into oblivion these days.

In my ears, the two guys weren't really serious about "Black Winds". I know that the elite Trve-Kvlt-Black-Metal-Faction certainly sees it differently, but for me "Black Winds" was a wet fart. I can't say that about their second demo "Bloodlust and Perversion"! The first "official" release from Carpathian Forest sounds a lot more serious and focused. Although the full potential that was already in Nattefrost and Nordavind at that time has not yet been fully exploited. The factors that bothered me most about "Black Winds" are still there, just better worked out. There are still songs that are based on a riff or two but are better produced and more professional, basically the songs are very doomey. Although they groove here and there, they are also very monotonous. Let me explain...

The titletrack "Bloodlust and Perversion" is fun and groovey, a good simple beat. However, it hardly changes its pace and is based on only one riff. The old school atmosphere, however, is very cool and runs through the entire demo. "Bloodlust and Perversion" unfortunately only picks up speed in the last half a minute and changes the pace a bit towards the end. "Return of the Freezing Winds" and "The Woods of Wallachia" basically have the same structure and therefore the same problems as "Bloodlust and Perversion". Although "Return of the Freezing Winds" is based on a doom riff that weighs tons, nothing changes in the course of the song, it still sounds evil and has charm. I was wondering what this riff would sound like if it was professionally produced, I think that would really push.

"The Woods of Wallachia" begins like "Return of the Freezing Winds", it could even be the same riff, only in a slightly different form, even the beat is the same. But then the outbreak... awesome. Bangs a lot and is fun! This euphoria only lasts 15 seconds and "The Woods of Wallachia" slides back into the typical mid-tempo main riff. And that's such a shame, because there would have been a great contrast because the part went really well and offered variety. Unfortunately, this potential was not used again.

The real stars here are again "Through the Black Veil of the Burgo Pass" and "Wings over the Mountain of Sighisoara", the ambient tracks. I wonder why Carpathian Forest didn't completely switch to dungeon-synth back then, because they were really good at ambient. Very thoughtful and atmospheric like a soundtrack to an old vampire movie. So in the end this demo is repetitive, partly boring but more mature and professional than the previous demo. You know that they started to take things seriously, and it is fun although it will not be among the best demos I've ever heard. But hey this thing only takes 18 minutes, so fuck it and let's have fun.

Carpathian Forest is the creme de la creme when it comes to Norwegian black metal. Bloodlust and Perversion is the first ever release by Carpathian Forest, and is a stellar debut demo for a band which would reach some pretty high points in their career. The production on this demo is very crude, as to be expected, however the whole atmosphere the low-quality production manages to capture, is simply magnificent. As a matter of pure fact, if this demo was produced today with today's technology,it wouldn't have felt as impactful as they do.

This demo is quite short, yet it is rich with pure black metal tremolo riffs, doomy passages and a lot of Hellhammer and Bathory worship with musical cues inserted into certain songs like easter eggs being inserted into a rabbit's anus, direct and metaphysically painful. The drums plod alongside the guitars and the vocalist quite well. The hi-hat is a little flat and lacks any sort of presence within the whole mix, and the bass-drum is almost is impossible to distinguish from the surrounding noise enclosed in a cage ready to burst out and destroy anything that surrounds it. However, the whole presence of the drums is wholesome enough in the overarching scheme of things, that it actually adds to the "fuck off and die" attitude of this entire demo. The vocal performance on this demo is very decent, however, it is quite one-dimensional. Most lyrics are performed in the traditional black metal way, with a hint of Tom G. Warrior-esque tinges expressed in very dirty, nasal shrieks.

The whole demo starts with an instrumental demo which sounds like it could have been takes straight out of some medieval sword and sorcery film or video-game. It serves its purpose quite well, and so does the outro track which wraps up this rather short experience. The outro shows an entirely different side of Carpathian Forest than the one we are exposed to during the entirety of the release. Although like its counterpart in the beginning, it evoked an image of medieval times, gloomy, sorrowful yet ethereal at the same time. The outro contains some pretty neat arpeggiated notes on the guitar and overbearing choir chants which make the whole affair even more morose and sinister than it had been.

The subject matter of most of the songs on this demo strictly subscribe to the thematic tendencies embraced by most early black meta bands. In layman's terms, satanism, sorcery, ancient/medieval history and fantastical themes in general. The musicianship on this demo leaves a little bit to desire, yet don't let that fact detract you from listening and fully experiencing this neat little demo. This release served as a solid platform upon which the band would further build on.

You know when bands used to invent their own idiosyncratic sub-genre for their own style? Hence Venom being black metal and Celtic Frost being Swiss-avante-blackened-glam - on this, their earliest release, Carpathian Forest plied a style quite unlike any of their more well-known works... Carpathian metal!

The deep, forlorn woods and cold, white towering mountains - the taste of mancare de fasole - and the fantastical visions of what was Europe's least-known and wildest region haunt Bloodlust and Perversion. Guitars howl like the 'children of the night', eerie blue flame appears and your carriage trudges on slowly, yet steadily, to your approaching doom. It's clear that Herr Nattefrost had gleamed much inspiration from Stoker's Dracula, LeFanu's Carmilla and Romania's striking landscapes and perhaps the mystery was greater still due to the then recent fall of Iron Curtain and Nicolae Ceaușescu's brutal and incompetent rule (Euronymous was a fan, right?).


What sets apart Bloodlust and Perversion is its heavily doom influenced sound; whilst subsequent releases such as the woefully overlooked Through Chasm, Caves and Titan Woods would have no fear of slower passages, Bloodlust and Perversion stands out due to the influence of both Hellhammer and, more importantly, Saint Vitus. What with its grim, treble-free tones and penchant for moody, somewhat bluesy riffs, this excellent demo has more than a touch of Saint Vitus magic to it. Whilst the likes of Burzum and Emperor didn't shy away slower paces, Carpathian Forest seldom break out of that gloomy trudge. The lack of shrieking treble, a more sepulchral, suffocating bass-heavy production, primitive drumming that plods rather than blasting and the use of the creepy blues-scale riffs all make this a really unique release for early 90's black metal.

The ambient stuff, too, is done quite skillfully; Nattefrost puts in a lot more details than a lot of his contemporaries did. The use of acoustic guitars, too, is a welcome touch; capturing that melancholy landscape vibe and the innate cruelty of a frozen and definitely haunted landscape. After all, you can seek shelter in the neighbouring castle but it might well prove to be your doom!

I think my initial reaction was surprise to this, as I just thought it was really fucking cool that Carpathian Forest had a relatively unsung demo with them basically playing a very black form of doom metal. While I stand by all of their albums - bare in mind that I haven't heard Fuck You All! yet - this is certainly not just some early, primordial fumbling but a surprisingly complete artistic vision. It's available on various Carpathian Forest comps, so seek it out.

I love Carpathian Forest and I especially love early Carpathian Forest but early Carpathian Forest is a completely different monster and, in some ways (I would argue), more black metal than later Carpathian Forest. I've always felt like CF were one of the bands that embody what is true Norwegian black metal; Not necessarily TRVE like Gorgoroth but true in that I don't feel like Nattefrost is working overtime to prove he is black metal, rather he just naturally is, and that he actually means the words he screams. I say this because I believe CF's music, including what we hear on this demo, embodies this spirit.

As I said though, the CF on Bloodlust and Perversion is a completely different CF. One thing that I love about later CF and that early CF does not have is SPEED. The songs on Bloodlust and Perversion are slow and sludgy. They are still grinding pieces of black metal heaven but there is no double bass or blastbeats and the songs have more in common with Tony Iommi's downtuned Black Sabbath guitar than traditional tremolo black metal.

Still, I'm into it. The title track grinds through four minutes of doomy, BS inspired riffage that is pleasing to say the least. At about two minutes in, Nattefrost squeezes out this hilarious squeal that sounds a little like a gremlin, but is still effective. Vox-wise Nattefrost sounds a bit like Pest with bellowing growls coming from the belly.

The 3 "metal" songs are situated in the center of the album, intended as the focus, I suppose... But the real stars of this demo are the intro and outro track. The intro, Through the Black Veil of Burgo Pass, comes across as a Nordic war anthem, with a fittingly phased out (LOTR-esque) warhorn and drums. It's not too dissimilar from the intro of It's Darker Than You Think (from DTOE), but it is more effective as a stand alone track in contrast to what the keys on It's Darker Than You Think are: a quick intro for blastbeats and double bass.

Wings Over the Mountain of Sighisoara is even better, wherein we are graced with a rare acoustic treat from CF (there are but a few more acoustic tracks strewn across the early demos). The melancholy guitar is layered over classic BM keys, similar to the keys sprinkled throughout other CF albums, and Nattefrost's piercing scream can be heard in the far off background - a fitting end to a doomy demo of early Carpathian Forest.