Now this is probably as obscure as it gets, and at the same time one of my absolute faves among the piles of old tapes I have. I have rarely seen this band mentioned anywhere, and despite (because?) of that I still think they were one of the very best Heavy Metal demo bands Finland had to offer back in the days of USSR and Cold War and other such Utter Bollocks. And it really seems that almost no one has ever heard of
Harlot. Well, at least not too many people have heard about them. I saw Harlot live with my mate ML back in '89 in Espoo and we were completely blown away by their performance. Of course we went to meet the guys after the gig and I bought this demo tape that you can now download. Never saw them live again and never even heard anything about them after that! That's how it was back then. No Internet, pretty much no information easily available - have a nice trip to the Land of Obscurity with your music, young man!
This demo is actually a bit heavier than I rememebered. This is sort of a borderline thing between two genres - the songs definitely have a strong Speed Metal thing going on too. There's something familiar about the vocals, but I can't figure out who does the lead singer sound like. There's plenty of skillful guitar playing and all that crap that is usually expected - this band was really a pretty fuckin' professional sounding unit when compared to many of the other new bands in the Finnish Metal scene at the time. But hey - check them out yourself. I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed.
Harlot - Demo 1989
1. Burying Dreams 5:47
2. Shadow Of The Black 5:46
3. Tears Of Ice 6:04
Style: Heavy Metal/Speed Metal
Download (mp3, 320 kbps)!
Had this demo since 2 months now downloaded from your blog, and just recently came to listen to it. Man, what a fucking KILLER is this?!? This really blows me constantly away since 3 days now!! Really a shame this was their only release, what would've been to come?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely great stuff!!
Hm, you mentioned the singer reminds you on someone, but can't recall... Ha, I have that feeling too, haha! Maybe there's a bit of Tim Baker in it I think, those high raspy yells send me shivers down the spine!
Many thanx for sharing this JEWEL!!!!
Yeah, it's really a big shame there's nothing more available from this band. But it's a classic case of being in a wrong place in a wrong time... they were a few years too late with their more traditional Heavy Metal sound and since they were coming from Finland this band had absolutely no chance of getting signed by any metal label. I mean in '89 Finnish Metal wasn't exactly something exciting and interesting to lots of people around the world like it seems to be these days. Shit happens...
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