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: Tetragon (Finland) - ...The Water had Rounded The Stones demo 1991

Thanks to mister Ratzombi for sending me this interesting little piece of history!

More Tetragon for your pleasure (or horror). This one's from 1991 and by then Tetragon must have been even more out of fashion than they ever had been before with the avalanche of Death Metal almost completely burying every other genre of metal underneath itself - that's how things really seemed to be in the early Nineties in Finland...

The music is still technical/experimental/avantgarde/whatfuckineveryouwannacallit Thrash Metal. Of course the band had developed as musicians and played better on this tape than on the Vermilion demo 1989. This is really good and interesting stuff indeed. Highly recommended for those who are not afraid of having some art in their thrash. Or something like that. I suck at describing things, but I know when I hear something I like!

Tetragon - ...The Water Had Rounded The Stones demo 1991

1. In Flight/Rounded Colours 6:16
2. Motherland 8:19
3. Variables/God's Only Son 9:05

Style: Avantgarde/Thrash Metal

Tetragon (Finland) - ...The Water Had Rounded The Stones demo 1991

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

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

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

Download (mp3, 320 kbps)!