Celtic Poetry

Norway was not the only country that was experiencing a rise in black metal due to the second-wave in the early 1990's. There were plenty of other bands from various countries putting out quality material. One of these countries in particular was France. Bands like Mütiilation, Black Murder, Belkètre, Torgeist, and this band, Vlad Tepes, along with the dark ambient side projects such as Aäkon Këëtrëh and Moëvöt, put out some of the harshest and most raw black metal recordings in history. The Les Légions Noires (Black Legions) was the name given to this group of highly obscure cult bands. Original releases from these bands can sometimes be found on sites such as eBay for thousands of dollars. Vlad Tepes is somewhat of an oddity within the LLN to me because while they still sounded very raw, they used much better production values than a lot of the other bands. Don't get me wrong, the production of this demo, "Celtic Poetry", is still awful. But hey, that's all for the atmosphere!

The guitars are the focal point of this demo. They are raw, unrelenting, and fuzzy as hell. They are also quite melodic. This dark and melodic riffing is the most rewarding aspect of listening to "Celtic Poetry". The first song is the main event of the album. "Drink the Poetry of the Celtic Disciple" is a 13 minute epic that contains some of the most melodic guitar work on the entire demo. The tremolo riff that we hear quite a few times during this song is easily the most recognizable riff in Vlad Tepes' discography. It's also very catchy and contains some pretty cool guitar solos, and even an injection of folk influence. A lot goes on throughout this song, and it may be hard to hear for some people because of its messy production. Still, this is the longest song on the demo and actually makes up half the entire runtime. A lot of punk influence is used throughout these songs, probably most notably in "Under the Carpathian Yoke".

Like I said previously, this production is pretty bad. It sounds like someone took an old cell phone into a cave and recorded everything in a live setting. The drums sound laughable at times, especially in "Under the Carpathian Yoke". The snare is full of reverb and sounds like cardboard. This is an example of an instrument suffering because of the production. That being said, this is still a solid demo and definitely a classic within the LLN. If you want to check the LLN out, I would advise beginning with this, or perhaps Mütiilation's "Hail Satanas We Are the Black Legions" EP, as that is probably the cleanest release in terms of production.

Vlad Tepes was one of the better and more melodic and accessible bands in the Black Legions: these guys played with a lot of passion, their music had a very distinctive salty folk flavour and its sound was very scratchy and bleeding-scab raw. "Celtic Poetry" is a very old and early demo of theirs and consists of four songs, all of which were retouched for a later joint recording with fellow Black Leagues band Belketre, "March to the Black Holocaust", which I reviewed a couple of years ago. The melodies of most songs are instantly recognisable to me in spite of the sandstorm-noise distortion that all but swamp them. The production job on this demo is pretty shitty and cheap but it doesn't detract from the band's style at all and actually makes the musicians sound more aggressive and edgy than they really are.

Longest track here is "Drink the Poetry of the Celtic Disciple" which is very enthusiastic and the most folk-sounding rush-job full of raw, noisy tremolo-guitar sound and fury. The singing is crabby, screechy and slumbering in turns but otherwise doesn't detract from the martial rhythms and headlong charge of the music. "Under the Carpathian Yoke" is a straightforward scrabbly screed of hatred and aggression.

There's a definite break before the third track "Diabolical Reaps" which is a very groove-laden song under the constant gravelly groaning. It passes jerkily into outro track "Misery, Fear and Storm Hunger" which is a furious piece with scraping-fingernails-down-a-board vibrato guitar and even more angry growling vocals. There's a little room for improvisation though with the primitive recording conditions here, maybe this track wasn't edited much or edited well at all and the music was left in its original state with splats of guitar feedback here and there.

Even if you have the split compilation mentioned above, it's still worth your while listening to this demo to hear Vlad Tepes at their most wild and raging. "March to the Black Holocaust" starts to sound fairly tame and bottled up by comparison. Those unfamiliar with Vlad Tepes probably should hear "Drink the Poetry of the Celtic Disciple" first and decide whether they want to pursue the rest of the band's material on the basis of the song's melody and production.

This is Vlad Tepes' second demo and it is pretty good, with a "decent" production job compared to some of their other material. Of course having said that, the production is, as you would expect with the LLN, bad, but it doesn't take away from the music(IMO). We have here 4 tracks of excellently written and played BM. These guys really know how to write a good song, as all the material presented here is very high caliber BM. The opening track is around 12 minutes long, making this a very epic song. It's got all kinds of different riffs and tempos that make it a highly enjoyable listen, plus it has two guitar solos in it, which makes it even more enjoyable. The main riff(?) has a very beautiful melody to it, with its tremolo picked majesty. The other three songs are also very good, but don't live up to the excellence that is the first track.

I have always believed that Vlad Tepes were the best musicians of the LLN, with their skillful, crafty songwriting and ability to really rock out on their instruments. You can tell that they were influenced not only by Burzum, Emperor, etc, but also by classic Heavy Metal bands of the 70's and 80's. It's a shame that this release, and their others too, are practically impossible to find, but if you happen upon a copy, by all means, buy it! Don't let it slip away into the utter darkness. Tragic Empire Records recently re-released War Funeral March, including the Winter Rehearsal 1993, as a CD, so pick that up if you can. Also the split with Belketre has been re-released onto CD. These are recommended too, but it is in the more obscure VT demos that you will find their best material, especially Dans Notre Chute and La Morte Lune.