Antidote (Finland) - Epoch of Insanity demo 1990

Time for more ancient stuff with some strange connections to a few bit more well known bands. Here's  Antidote from Vantaa, Finland. The band featured future members of Impaled Nazarene and Thunderstone and this demo tape was recorded at the infamous TTT Studio by Timo Tolkki (probably best known for his work with Stratovarius) in May 1990. Antidote made two demo tapes before they got signed and made three albums between 1992 and 1996 before splitting up. This is their first demo - or at least the first demo that's mentioned in the Encyclopaedia Metallum database. A solid demo it is. What should I say about all this then? Well, there's four good speed/thrash metal songs, the band plays well, the production is decent enough. There's some additional keyboards here & there but it's basically guitars, guitars and more guitars. As it should be. This is definitely above the average stuff for a demo from 1990 and it surely is well worth a listen even today. So check it out...

Antidote - Epoch of Insanity demo 1990

1. Careless World 3:37
2. Melancholia 5:01
3. Epoch of Insanity 4:06
4. One Crime ´90 9:05

Style: Speed Metal/Thrash Metal

Antidote - Epoch of Insanity demo 1990

Diablo Brothers (Finland) - Twizted Harmony demo 1995

Hello,

it's been a damn long time since I posted anything new. Sorry 'bout that. Here we go again!

Diablo Brothers? Who the hell were they? Well, this fine little piece of history is actually the debut demo of a band which later became a lot more known as Diablo. As Diablo they have done a bunch of albums and tours - including just for an example a European tour with Children of Bodom and Cannibal Corpse. But when this demo was released all that nice stuff was still in the future for the guys of Diablo Brothers. As you can see this is a sort of typical mid-Nineties demo tape with photocopied covers and all that crap, so nothing really special worth mentioning there. And it's the music that really matters anyway, right? Musically the band reminds me a lot of early 90's Pantera. There's certain similarities here, for sure. But then does it really matter? For a debut demo this is really good stuff and like I told you they were heading for bigger and better things within a few years after this tape got released. On this demo you get groovy riffs and heavy guitars and all that other nice mid-Nineties metal stuff that you probably liked back then. Or not. But that's the way things were back then. Basically if you like Pantera you will also like Diablo Brothers. So check out the four songs here. They're pretty long songs actually - three out of four of these songs are 6+ minutes long so it's not like this demo is full of instant pop tunes. Cool stuff. Thumbs up!

Diablo Brothers (Finland) - Twizted Harmony demo 1995

1. To the Other Side 4:11
2. Twizted Harmony 6:11
3. A Day of My Life 6:17
4. Recovered 6:28

Style: Heavy Metal/Groove Metal

Diablo Brothers (Finland) - Twizted Harmony demo 1995

REUPLOAD: Flounder (Finland) - Demo III 1989

A.K.A. "Sea=Dancer+Bunch of flowers demo"

OK, so did you listen to that Flounder demo I posted? Good. Now prepare to get royally mindfucked. I mean if you thought the previous demo was a bit strange, what the hell is this then? I'm at loss for words. Listen to this one yourself and then think about this: how the hell did these guys manage to remember all these parts in these songs and what the fuck were they thinking anyway? I mean this is definitely not your standard rock music with your standard rock music structures and all that crap. This is, well... mindblowing and adventurous music that does not fit into any genre whatsoever. Yeah, sure, there definitely IS metal among other things, but isn't some of this really more like Voivod playing tango while being assraped by the late great Frank Zappa?

Yeah.

Loss for words.

Listen to it yourself if you dare.

Flounder - Demo III 1989

1. Dada (Parole in liberta)/Maybe.. 5:54
2. Frustrated 8:55
3. Imperishable Invisibility 4:56
4. Outro 1:03

Style: Avantgarde Metal/Thrash Metal

Flounder (Finland) - Demo III 1989

REUPLOAD: Flounder (Finland) - Demo II 1989

Flounder was certainly one of the weirdest bands in the late 80's Finnish metal scene. Experimental? Yes. Avantgarde? Yes. Weird jazzy bits here & there? Hell yeah. All of that mixed with thrash metal. It's still very entertaining stuff if you like unusual stuff. After making four demos Flounder did an EP in 1992 and then vanished. I was a huge Voivod fan in the Eighties - I still am actually - and Flounder reminded me of them somehow. The were not a clone band or anything like that but their weird song structures and the guitar playing reminds me of the Canadian masters of weirdness. And also like Voivod, Flounder is not for everyone but something else. An acquired taste. It's either Art or Incoherent Bullshit. It depends on the listener, of course.

This is Flounder's second demo and yes, it's fucking strange. That probably describes it well enough. Like it or not, at least it's not yet another generic thrash metal demo. This one's also known as "Virtahevonkakkaa!!!" demo. That's something like "Hippopotamus poo!!!" in English, in case you were wondering WTF is that supposed to mean. ;)

PS. Two members of Flounder later appeared in the legendary Finnish Death Metal band Convulse. Flounder's guitar player Aki Yli-Salomäki is apparently these days an award winning composer of classical music and all these great arty things I don't know much about...

Flounder - Demo II 1989

1. Intro Visuvedelle 1:30
2. Soprano & 8 Cellos 5:41
3. Ulterior Ramification 3:17
4. Paunch of Pauper 5:03
5. Inorganic Crystallization 4:34

Style: Avantgarde Metal/Thrash Metal

Flounder (Finland) - Demo II 1989

REUPLOAD: X-Ray (Finland) Classic Metal Part I demo 1998

Say what? Classic Metal Part I? Was there later a part II or perhaps even a part III?

It seems that this band from Rusko, Finland called X-Ray, consisting of a bunch of 18 year olds (Antti Kaasalainen - vocals & guitar, Samuli Sairanen - guitar & vocals, Matti Paajanen - bass, Hannu Paappa - drums) vanished without a trace like most demo bands tend to do. This is especially true in this band's case since not even the almighty Metal Archives knows anything about this band. Or at least they didn't know until early 2012 - someone out there will most likely add this band to their database sooner or later.

I have no clue how this tape came into my possession, but it has been originally sent to a Finnish metal label and yes, there's some words written in the back of the demo cover by one of the band members. You know how it is - all the usual stuff hoping to gain the attention of the record label guys, "here's our demo, listen to it and let us know what you think, blah blah blah"... I certainly have written that kind of stuff in the past, trying to get signed... anyway, this is not about me or my music, this is about X-Ray's music... and the music's kinda OK. I'm not the biggest fan of the 90's European Power Metal Scene, but it's pretty obvious that these guys listened  to all the important bands of the time, you know, Helloween, Stratovarius, Gamma Ray and probably a few hundred more. I suppose generic is the word that should be used here - I think this is pretty much what this demo tape is - a quite typical 'heavy/power metal by numbers' kind of thing. I mean everything about this tape just screams that it's OK but nothing more. The guys can play OK, the vocals are kinda OK but could be a bit better, but you know what? I think it has some value anyway - it's a nice reminder of how the metal scene was back then. Melodic heavy/power Metal was the big thing in Europe and thousands of young hopefuls played the style back then, hoping to get signed and becoming big stars with plenty of money and pussy and whatever... there must have been lots of stuff by bands like this every fucking day on the tables of all the A&R guys in all the record labels back in the Nineties.

X-Ray - Classic Metal Part I demo 1998

1. Way To Home 5:59
2. Time Will Tell 4:50
3. Vicious Circle 5:15

Style: Heavy Metal/Power Metal

X-Ray - Classic Metal Part I demo 1998

REUPLOAD: Burst (Finland) - Beyond the Dreams demo 1992

Yeah, I know it's been a while since I posted any new shit, so it's about time I did something about it.

Here's a demo by this band called Burst from Keuruu, Finland. This demo and some other stuff by them is actually available just by clicking the link and downloading the shit from there... but since I had already ripped this I thought that I'd still post it here. Shit happens. Yeah. I like this one, so perhaps it deserves your attention. This demo was recorded in June 1992 so it must have been pretty out-of-date stuff by the time it was released. It has a good sound quality and musically it's kinda obvious that these guys must have been listening to bands like Stone quite a bit. I don't mean that Burst was a rip-off band or anything, but there IS this certain "Finnish Speed Metal" thing going on within these songs. You can hear the influences for sure even though this is a demo from '92 and for most of the time the band seems to be looking for something else than the Speed Metal thing musically. On their Metal Archives page they're called "Progressive Metal". Perhaps that's what this is then?


I remember seeing this band live once... don't know when exactly - very late Eighties/early Nineties, I suppose. Anyway, what I do remember is that they played at the infamous Herttoniemi Youth Club in Helsinki with a bunch of other bands and that they were definitely a good live band (they certainly played a lot more speed metal influenced stuff live than on this demo). Too bad that the times and the metal trends were already changing by then, so like so many others, they ended up being one of those bands that never really went anywhere.

Burst - Beyond the Dreams demo 1992

1. Black Soul 4:07
2. Find The Life  4:46
3. A Pure Chance 4:43
4. Beyond The Dreams 5:19

Style: Speed Metal/Thrash Metal

Burst (Finland) - Beyond the Dreams demo 1992

REUPLOAD: Virago (Finland) - Demo (198?)

Allright. Time to get back where we started. As those of you who have been following this blog since the beginning may remember, the first tape I posted was by a band called Virago and it was from '89. However this one I recently found from my boxes of dusty old tapes is an earlier demo. Don't know the exact year, but on this one it's still their bass player on vocals, and not the lead singer that sang on the later demo. Perhaps a little bit more aggression here and there, and it's more straight-forward kinda stuff than their later music in general. This is still a fine example of the local speed metal scene of the late 80's... well, at least for me it is. I still remember seeing this band live, supporting the bigger bands of the scene. I mean I saw Virago several times opening for Stone, Airdash, Prestige... pretty much all the important names of the time. And what did they get for all their efforts? Fucking nothing. But hey, that's life and like I've probably said a few times before, back then it was much harder for a Finnish metal band to get signed.

Virago - Demo (198?)

1. Hazevisitor 3:17
2. Proclaim 4:40
3. Indisposed 3:15
4. Beerboys 3:36

Style: Speed/Thrash Metal

Virago (Finland) - Demo (198?)