I have these old boxes full of old tapes. Lots and lots of them. Most of them are just full of crap but then some of them are rather interesting - at least if you're interested in all these obscure metal demo tapes mainly from the 80's and the 90's (perhaps 00's?). I thought that perhaps I should share some of these random noises from old tapes by (mostly) forgotten bands before the tapes just die... you know, 20+ years old tapes can be kinda fragile things.
Showing posts with label 1980's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1980's. Show all posts
August 4, 2014
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: 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?)
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?)
REUPLOAD: Metallic Toaster (Finland) - Toast Till Death demo 7.8.88
7.8.88. That's August 7th, 1988. That's a fucking long time ago.
Metallic Toaster is a bit of mystery. There's absolutely no information about them on the Internet... well, there actually is now at least some audio of this thrash metal band available since I'm posting this demo I found from one of my infamous boxes. I remember hearing about this band playing a few underground gigs here and there in the Helsinki area, but I don't remember if I ever saw them live. I don't know who played in this band nor do I know which city they were from. All I know is that they were from Finland and they recorded at least this three song demo. I would like to know a lot more, so if you have any info about this band - get in touch.
Metallic Toaster - Toast Till Death demo 7.8.88
1. March Of The M.T. 2:04
2. Religious Freak 5:18
3. The End 7:17
Style: Thrash Metal
Metallic Toaster (Finland) - Toast Till Death demo 7.8.88
Metallic Toaster is a bit of mystery. There's absolutely no information about them on the Internet... well, there actually is now at least some audio of this thrash metal band available since I'm posting this demo I found from one of my infamous boxes. I remember hearing about this band playing a few underground gigs here and there in the Helsinki area, but I don't remember if I ever saw them live. I don't know who played in this band nor do I know which city they were from. All I know is that they were from Finland and they recorded at least this three song demo. I would like to know a lot more, so if you have any info about this band - get in touch.
Metallic Toaster - Toast Till Death demo 7.8.88
1. March Of The M.T. 2:04
2. Religious Freak 5:18
3. The End 7:17
Style: Thrash Metal
Metallic Toaster (Finland) - Toast Till Death demo 7.8.88
REUPLOAD: Tetragon (Finland) - Vermilion demo 1989
Technical metal? Experimental metal? Avantgarde metal? Progressive metal? All of that and then of course Thrash metal. That's Tetragon from Parkano, Finland. One of the forgotten and perhaps even somehow original or unique treasures of the ancient Finnish metal scene - they certainly were not one of the generic thrash bands of the era. Perhaps they were a bit too complex for your average thrasher of the day? I mean this isn't any thrash metal by numbers clone band. The Metal Archives entry for this demo mentions only four songs, but there's actually five songs - the first one being over three minutes long piano/vocals piece (don't know the title - if someone out there can help me with this, get in touch...), and only after that things become more metallic but at the same time remain experimental through the entire demo. This is highly recommended to those who are not afraid of music that is more adventurous than usual.
The band is again somehow active today. Or it seems that they at least have been active in 2010. They have a website, a Facebook site and a MySpace site. "Tetragon is recording new material", they say. If it's anything like this demo, I'd definitely love to hear that new material!
EDIT 2014: The first Tetragon album "Signs of Grief" was released in 2013 and it's a really good one. Buy it if you can! Apparently there's also some new Tetragon material on the way so at least one of my ancient faves is alive and well in 2014!
Tetragon - Vermilion demo 1989
1. [title unknown] 3:32
2. Brothers In Blood 4:34
3. Tetragonal Dreams 5:15
4. Satanic Verses 4:04
5. Vermilion 9:38
Style: Avantgarde/Thrash Metal
Tetragon (Finland) - Vermilion demo 1989
REUPLOAD: Hammerhead (Finland) - 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
Another Hammerhead tape for you. Here's the short set that Hammerhead played when they were the opening act for Brainwash at Harju Youth Club. There was some guys in the audience who didn't like Hammerhead at all and they were not afraid to tell the band so... the band got more and more pissed off during the show and it seemed like they cut their set short (which pissed me & my mate ML off). The last song (a Sodom cover version) was probably something they had not planned to play but they played it anyway. I edited this tape a bit, which means that I cut most of the unnecessary bullshit out. What is left of the show here is musically really good and the sound is OK too. Check this shit out and don't forget to check the Hammerhead demo I posted in March...
Hammerhead - 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
1. [title unknown] 6:48
2. Eclipse 6:07
3. [title unknown] 5:05
4. Sepulchral Voice 1:40
EDIT 05 Aug 2014: Just got the correct song titles from a former member of Hammerhead. So here are the correct ones - change the tags in the mp3's if you download the tape:
1. Picnic Outdoors
2. Eclipse
3. Legal Security Act
4. Sepulchral Voice
Style: Speed Metal/Thrash Metal
Hammerhead (Finland) - 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
Hammerhead - 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
1. [title unknown] 6:48
2. Eclipse 6:07
3. [title unknown] 5:05
4. Sepulchral Voice 1:40
EDIT 05 Aug 2014: Just got the correct song titles from a former member of Hammerhead. So here are the correct ones - change the tags in the mp3's if you download the tape:
1. Picnic Outdoors
2. Eclipse
3. Legal Security Act
4. Sepulchral Voice
Style: Speed Metal/Thrash Metal
Hammerhead (Finland) - 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
REUPLOAD: Brainwash (Finland) - 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
Bringing back to life some more noises by yet another almost forgotten band - this one was called Brainwash and they were from Helsinki. If I remember correctly they were originally called Backline... or something like that. Too bad there's no demo shit available - at least I don't seem to have any. But there's this live tape recorded by yours truly at Harju Youth Club in May 1989. Once again, the sound is what it is, but at least I can hear clearly a speed/thrash metal band that played really well and had some pretty fucking good songs. Check it out yourself. This is the complete gig and there's also a Black Sabbath cover version included. May 14, 1989 was a Sunday - that most likely explains the lack of enthusiasm shown by the audience. Brainwash were the headlining band that evening and the opening act was Hammerhead. I recorded both bands and I think I'll be uploading the Hammerhead gig too one of these days.
Strangely enough quite many metal gigs at that time were on Sundays. Don't know why, really, but I guess the organizers thought they'd get less problems if the fans were sober... and I suppose they were absofuckinglutely right. Yeah. :D
Like so many other bands of the time, Brainwash simply just disappeared. However the lead singer/bass player Ali later surfaced as a singer/bassist for Corporal Punishment, who did three albums in the Nineties - and had in its lineup guys who had played in bigger bands of the Finnish metal scene like Stone and Airdash. Last time I heard of Ali was around 2005 when he was playing in a band called Bendover with the drummer from HIM...
Brainwash - 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
1. Have No Mercy 3:25
2. [title unknown] 5:59
3. [title unknown] 5:19
4. Brainwash 3:08
5. Right To Kill 4:18
6. Children Of The Grave 3:37
7. [title unknown] 4:42
8. Pain In My Brain 5:00
Style: Speed Metal/Thrash Metal
Brainwash (Finland) 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
Strangely enough quite many metal gigs at that time were on Sundays. Don't know why, really, but I guess the organizers thought they'd get less problems if the fans were sober... and I suppose they were absofuckinglutely right. Yeah. :D
Like so many other bands of the time, Brainwash simply just disappeared. However the lead singer/bass player Ali later surfaced as a singer/bassist for Corporal Punishment, who did three albums in the Nineties - and had in its lineup guys who had played in bigger bands of the Finnish metal scene like Stone and Airdash. Last time I heard of Ali was around 2005 when he was playing in a band called Bendover with the drummer from HIM...
Brainwash - 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
1. Have No Mercy 3:25
2. [title unknown] 5:59
3. [title unknown] 5:19
4. Brainwash 3:08
5. Right To Kill 4:18
6. Children Of The Grave 3:37
7. [title unknown] 4:42
8. Pain In My Brain 5:00
Style: Speed Metal/Thrash Metal
Brainwash (Finland) 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
REUPLOAD: Mayhem (Finland) - Bitter Remains of Better Future Demo '89
"Wow! What a way to start my day, hangover and missiles on their way
If I have to die in here, then I want a beer
I don't care for crumbling land, I just want a beer in my hand
If I really have to die, then I want to die drunk"
Mayhem - Die Drunk
Oh yeah. Thrasher kids of Cold War era writing lyrics about the impending nuclear war... and getting drunk. Kinda typical, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I guess there must have been literally thousands of thrash metal bands doing the same thing everywhere in the world back then. Apparently these Finnish Mayhem dudes had not (yet) heard about their infamous Norwegian namesake when they were recording this demo in late October 1989. Vicious and sometimes extremely fast (especially during the opening track) thrash metal which occasionally reminds me a bit about another Finnish band - Protected Illusion. Actually there IS a connection here: the drummer/vocalist Erkki Virta of Mayhem joined Protected Illusion a bit later (or perhaps he already was a member of PI when he played on this demo?)... and the last time yours truly heard about him was in 2008 when he played drums on the excellent doom metal album Lithium Gates by The Puritan. So I suppose he's kept himself busy making music since late Eighties. No idea about the other guys. I suppose they just got day jobs and started families & shit like the rest of us old farts. That's the way life goes I guess. Anyway, this is a great demo but perhaps a bit lengthy one - I mean there's eight songs on this demo and it lasts about half an hour so it's almost more like an album than a demo tape, but this is definitely one of those things from the Finnish scene of the late Eighties that deserves to be heard again.
Mayhem - Bitter Remains of Better Future demo '89
1. Die Drunk 4:35
2. Burning The Bridges 4:04
3. Brainstorm 2:59
4. Two (Bitter Remains...) 5:18
5. Incestor 0:11
6. ...Without Any Reason 3:51
7. Blind Belief 3:52
8. Blackened Sanity 5:15
Style: Thrash Metal
REUPLOAD: Defection (Finland) - War of Losers (198?)
Defection from Vantaa (Mika - guitar+vocals, Jökä - guitar, Pete - bass, Jone-drums)... this is thrash metal played the way it's supposed to be played! There's no year mentioned in the cover of the tape, but I suppose this is from the late Eighties. This is yet another rather unknown band, but some of the people involved with this little tape have made some things later that may have made some of you out there notice them. First of all this demo was recorded and mixed at TTT-music studio by the one and only Timo Tolkki himself. I suppose most of you have heard about Stratovarius and some of the other bands/projects he's been involved with. Then there's the bass player of Defection, Pete Peltonen, whom some may or may not remeber from another Finnish thrash band, Antidote, who made three albums in the Nineties. There's some session keyboards on this demo - played by Kari Tornack, who played on several albums by Thunderstone. So this is indeed some early work by guys who later did something different and got signed and all that crap... Anyway, this is a very good demo by yet another forgotten band - check it out. It's definitely worth a try.
Defection - War Of Losers (198?)
1. War Of Losers 3:16
2. Conscientious Objector 5:19
3. Battle Of The Blades 6:18
4. One Day 5:08
Style: Thrash Metal
Defection (Finland) - War of Losers (198?)
Defection - War Of Losers (198?)
1. War Of Losers 3:16
2. Conscientious Objector 5:19
3. Battle Of The Blades 6:18
4. One Day 5:08
Style: Thrash Metal
Defection (Finland) - War of Losers (198?)
REUPLOAD: Hammerhead (Finland) - Demo '88
Hammerhead from Helsinki. I got this one through tape trading. Remember tape trading, pen pals, letters, envelopes, stamps, all those lovely things? Yeah. It was a different world indeed in the late Eighties... and so was Hammerhead. Different, I mean. They were one of these bands that me & my friends really liked... and yet another one that just sort of vanished. They had perhaps a bit less straight-forward approach to their music than some other Helsinki area bands of that time. Which basically means that they had a few more riffs and tempo changes in their songs and the song structures were very varied... and in general the songs weren't exactly 'short but sweet' either. Call it 'technical' or 'progressive' or whatfuckingever, it's still enjoyable and that's all that really matters, right? This is called Demo '88 but it sounds almost like they're playing this stuff live. Or then it is a low budget studio recording. I don't know. It's a shame I don't have more info about this tape. I mean I only know one of the song titles, and that's only because it was played once on the radio and I happened to hear (and record) it... and now that I'm thinking about it I'm not even sure about that one song title. But it says on this piece of paper that I have that track #4 is called 'Thing', so I'll call it 'Thing'. Might have been something like 'The Thing', originally... does it really make a difference? No, not really. This monster of a song goes through several changes before the lead vocals come in at around the three minute mark. Not exactly simple pop music, eh? Yeah, I consider this 'Thing' a classic tune. Loved it in 1988, still love it in 2011.
Hammerhead - Demo '88
1. [title unknown] 3:06
2. [title unknown] 5:46
3. [title unknown] 8:10
4. Thing 8:14
5. [title unknown] 0:34
EDIT: Here's the correct song titles...
1. Sharp is the knife
2. Teargas stories
3. Faceless dawn
4. The Thing
Style Speed Metal/Thrash Metal
Hammerhead (Finland) - Demo '88
Hammerhead - Demo '88
1. [title unknown] 3:06
2. [title unknown] 5:46
3. [title unknown] 8:10
4. Thing 8:14
5. [title unknown] 0:34
EDIT: Here's the correct song titles...
1. Sharp is the knife
2. Teargas stories
3. Faceless dawn
4. The Thing
Style Speed Metal/Thrash Metal
Hammerhead (Finland) - Demo '88
REUPLOAD: Harlot (Finland) - Demo 1989
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
Harlot (Finland) - Demo 1989
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
Harlot (Finland) - Demo 1989
REUPLOAD: Virago (Finland) - Rehearsal 1988
Don't know much about this tape either. If I remember right I got this from a friend (who got it from a member of the band - the drummer, I think) back in '88 and I suppose it was recorded early that year - might have been recorded even in '87? Who knows? Anyway, this is your usual rehearsal stuff with a sort of a decent sound for such a shitty old tape. There's some good songs on this one. Perhaps they are a bit simpler songs than on the demo I posted earlier, but this is an older tape, so obviously the band must have also been a bit younger and more inexperienced. Blah blah fucking blah. Download the thing if you want to. :D
Virago - Rehearsal 1988
1. Taste Your Blood 5:07
2. Asphyxia 4:06
3. Warrior/Batman/Black Adept 12:26
4. Beer Boys 4:35
5. Battle Inside 4:03
Style: Speed/Thrash Metal
Virago (Finland) - Rehearsal 1988
Virago - Rehearsal 1988
1. Taste Your Blood 5:07
2. Asphyxia 4:06
3. Warrior/Batman/Black Adept 12:26
4. Beer Boys 4:35
5. Battle Inside 4:03
Style: Speed/Thrash Metal
Virago (Finland) - Rehearsal 1988
Labels:
1980's,
Finland,
Rehearsal,
Speed Metal,
Thrash Metal
REUPLOAD: Virago (Finland) Demo '89
Meet Virago. These guys were pretty active in the late Eighties right in the middle of the Speed Metal craze which wreaked havoc among the youth of Finland. Led by bands like Stone, Airdash and A.R.G., the metal scene of Finland quickly grew bigger than it had ever been before. As always, behind the bigger names of the scene came legions of other bands which for some reason never got signed. Virago was one of them. They played lots of gigs with the major bands of the scene and were pretty popular in the Helsinki area, but somehow they never got any further than that. Like many other bands of the era they just slowly faded away in the early Nineties. Or that's what I think happened to them. If you have more info about them, I'd like to hear it. Anyway, here's a demo tape of theirs from 1989 for you to check out. Don't have the cover - don't know if such thing even exists. Don't even have a photo of the band, but there's always the music. And it's pretty damn good. There were much worse bands out there back then. SACRAMENTAL! WARFARE!!!
Ahhh... those were the days!
Virago - Demo '89
1. Mr. Jones 4:14
2. Hazevisitor 4:49
3. Public Enemy 3:32
4. Sacramental Warfare 3:15
5. Proclaim/Waste Another Year 9:22
Style: Speed/Thrash Metal
Virago (Finland) - Demo ´89
Ahhh... those were the days!
Virago - Demo '89
1. Mr. Jones 4:14
2. Hazevisitor 4:49
3. Public Enemy 3:32
4. Sacramental Warfare 3:15
5. Proclaim/Waste Another Year 9:22
Style: Speed/Thrash Metal
Virago (Finland) - Demo ´89
January 22, 2012
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
Download (mp3, 320 kbps)!
January 15, 2012
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
Download (mp3, 320 kbps)!
May 8, 2011
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
Download (mp3, 320 kbps)!
Virago - Demo (198?)
1. Hazevisitor 3:17
2. Proclaim 4:40
3. Indisposed 3:15
4. Beerboys 3:36
Download (mp3, 320 kbps)!
April 10, 2011
Metallic Toaster (Finland) - Toast Till Death demo 7.8.88
7.8.88. That's August 7th, 1988. That's a fucking long time ago.
Metallic Toaster is a bit of mystery. There's absolutely no information about them on the Internet... well, there actually is now at least some audio of this thrash metal band available since I'm posting this demo I found from one of my infamous boxes. I remember hearing about this band playing a few underground gigs here and there in the Helsinki area, but I don't remember if I ever saw them live. I don't know who played in this band nor do I know which city they were from. All I know is that they were from Finland and they recorded at least this three song demo. I would like to know a lot more, so if you have any info about this band - get in touch.
Metallic Toaster - Toast Till Death demo 7.8.88
1. March Of The M.T. 2:04
2. Religious Freak 5:18
3. The End 7:17
Style: Thrash Metal
Download (mp3, 320 kbps)!
Metallic Toaster is a bit of mystery. There's absolutely no information about them on the Internet... well, there actually is now at least some audio of this thrash metal band available since I'm posting this demo I found from one of my infamous boxes. I remember hearing about this band playing a few underground gigs here and there in the Helsinki area, but I don't remember if I ever saw them live. I don't know who played in this band nor do I know which city they were from. All I know is that they were from Finland and they recorded at least this three song demo. I would like to know a lot more, so if you have any info about this band - get in touch.
Metallic Toaster - Toast Till Death demo 7.8.88
1. March Of The M.T. 2:04
2. Religious Freak 5:18
3. The End 7:17
Style: Thrash Metal
Download (mp3, 320 kbps)!
Tetragon (Finland) - Vermilion demo 1989
Technical metal? Experimental metal? Avantgarde metal? Progressive metal? All of that and then of course Thrash metal. That's Tetragon from Parkano, Finland. One of the forgotten and perhaps even somehow original or unique treasures of the ancient Finnish metal scene - they certainly were not one of the generic thrash bands of the era. Perhaps they were a bit too complex for your average thrasher of the day? I mean this isn't any thrash metal by numbers clone band. The Metal Archives entry for this demo mentions only four songs, but there's actually five songs - the first one being over three minutes long piano/vocals piece (don't know the title - if someone out there can help me with this, get in touch...), and only after that things become more metallic but at the same time remain experimental through the entire demo. This is highly recommended to those who are not afraid of music that is more adventurous than usual.
The band is again somehow active today. Or it seems that they at least have been active in 2010. They have a website, a Facebook site and a MySpace site. "Tetragon is recording new material", they say. If it's anything like this demo, I'd definitely love to hear that new material!
Tetragon - Vermilion demo 1989
1. [title unknown] 3:32
2. Brothers In Blood 4:34
3. Tetragonal Dreams 5:15
4. Satanic Verses 4:04
5. Vermilion 9:38
Style: Avantgarde/Thrash Metal
Download (mp3, 320 kbps)!
April 3, 2011
Hammerhead (Finland) - 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
Another Hammerhead tape for you. Here's the short set that Hammerhead played when they were the opening act for Brainwash at Harju Youth Club. There was some guys in the audience who didn't like Hammerhead at all and they were not afraid to tell the band so... the band got more and more pissed off during the show and it seemed like they cut their set short (which pissed me & my mate ML off). The last song (a Sodom cover version) was probably something they had not planned to play but they played it anyway. I edited this tape a bit, which means that I cut most of the unnecessary bullshit out. What is left of the show here is musically really good and the sound is OK too. Check this shit out and don't forget to check the Hammerhead demo I posted in March...
Hammerhead - 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
1. [title unknown] 6:48
2. Eclipse 6:07
3. [title unknown] 5:05
4. Sepulchral Voice 1:40
Style: Speed Metal/Thrash Metal
Download (mp3, 320 kbps)!
Hammerhead - 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
1. [title unknown] 6:48
2. Eclipse 6:07
3. [title unknown] 5:05
4. Sepulchral Voice 1:40
Style: Speed Metal/Thrash Metal
Download (mp3, 320 kbps)!
Brainwash (Finland) - 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
Bringing back to life some more noises by yet another almost forgotten band - this one was called Brainwash and they were from Helsinki. If I remember correctly they were originally called Backline... or something like that. Too bad there's no demo shit available - at least I don't seem to have any. But there's this live tape recorded by yours truly at Harju Youth Club in May 1989. Once again, the sound is what it is, but at least I can hear clearly a speed/thrash metal band that played really well and had some pretty fucking good songs. Check it out yourself. This is the complete gig and there's also a Black Sabbath cover version included. May 14, 1989 was a Sunday - that most likely explains the lack of enthusiasm shown by the audience. Brainwash were the headlining band that evening and the opening act was Hammerhead. I recorded both bands and I think I'll be uploading the Hammerhead gig too one of these days.
Strangely enough quite many metal gigs at that time were on Sundays. Don't know why, really, but I guess the organizers thought they'd get less problems if the fans were sober... and I suppose they were absofuckinglutely right. Yeah. :D
Like so many other bands of the time, Brainwash simply just disappeared. However the lead singer/bass player Ali later surfaced as a singer/bassist for Corporal Punishment, who did three albums in the Nineties - and had in its lineup guys who had played in bigger bands of the Finnish metal scene like Stone and Airdash. Last time I heard of Ali was around 2005 when he was playing in a band called Bendover with the drummer from HIM...
Brainwash - 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
1. Have No Mercy 3:25
2. [title unknown] 5:59
3. [title unknown] 5:19
4. Brainwash 3:08
5. Right To Kill 4:18
6. Children Of The Grave 3:37
7. [title unknown] 4:42
8. Pain In My Brain 5:00
Style: Speed Metal/Thrash Metal
Download (mp3, 320 kbps)!
Strangely enough quite many metal gigs at that time were on Sundays. Don't know why, really, but I guess the organizers thought they'd get less problems if the fans were sober... and I suppose they were absofuckinglutely right. Yeah. :D
Like so many other bands of the time, Brainwash simply just disappeared. However the lead singer/bass player Ali later surfaced as a singer/bassist for Corporal Punishment, who did three albums in the Nineties - and had in its lineup guys who had played in bigger bands of the Finnish metal scene like Stone and Airdash. Last time I heard of Ali was around 2005 when he was playing in a band called Bendover with the drummer from HIM...
Brainwash - 14.5.1989 Harju, Helsinki
1. Have No Mercy 3:25
2. [title unknown] 5:59
3. [title unknown] 5:19
4. Brainwash 3:08
5. Right To Kill 4:18
6. Children Of The Grave 3:37
7. [title unknown] 4:42
8. Pain In My Brain 5:00
Style: Speed Metal/Thrash Metal
Download (mp3, 320 kbps)!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)





