Black Swan – When The Angels Of Twilight Dance (1998)

Country: Finland

Tracklist

1. The Tavastian Parade 07:41
2. Under Cloak And Hood 04:55
3. Into The Sea Of Sorrow 05:35
4. Autumn In Eden 05:54
5. The Withering Flower Of Life 05:01
6. Mist 02:21
7. To Behold The Sky Of Flames 07:50
8. When The Angels Of Twilight Dance 07:55

Black Swan started as a two-man project of T. Palokangas and J. Tuomivaara.

The band released ''Demo '96'' with T. Palokangas handling guitars and vocals 

and J. Tuomivaara handling keyboards and programming.

After the demo they decided to expand to a five-man set, 

mainly because of the impossibilities of playing a real live set with just two men.

A bit later Palokangas decided to concentrate mainly to the guitar work 

and Antti Haapapuro (also in Dolorian, Aeoga, Arktau Eos, Halo Manash and I.corax) joined the band as a vocalist.

In the summer of 1997 Black Swan started playing live shows steadily and recorded their second demo ''Autumn In Eden''.

In the fall they signed a record deal with Mastervox 

and one year later they offered their first full length album entitled "When The Angels Of Twilight Dance".
Ari Kukkohovi also provides live percussion for the bands Arktau Eos and Dolorian.

Memory

Xenomorph – Cassandra's Nightmare (1998)

Country: Germany

Tracklist

1. Necroid Millenium 07:58
2. Hallucinatory Spheres 09:15
3. Abominations 09:40
4. Torrent Of Insanity 09:49
5. Acid For Blood 07:17
6. Obscure Spectre 09:22
7. Apocalyptic Ritual 07:46
8. Cassandra's Nightmare 08:27

Xenomorph is the one-man band of Mark Petrick, based in Berlin, Germany.
The band is considered one of the veterans in the trance scene who has played live shows in many countries. 

Mark sees himself as the inventor of horror-trance, a unique style that was unprecedented in 1996 when he created songs like "Obscure Spectre" which has upset many goa-people and was considered "unspiritual" or "un-goa-ish". 

Regardless of the initial anti-sentiment against his music he has kept and refined his style throughout the years 

in which the community has become more open and appreciative for dark music.

Unlike most younger trance artists who just listen to trance music, Mark was exposed to a multitude 

of musical influences like new wave, punk/post-punk, gothic, rock-music, death-rock, industrial, EBM, 

power-noise, death-metal, crossover/hardcore as well as classical music and soundtracks.
He started to be musically active in 1985 as a bass-player in a goth-band called "Fog Drowning".

In 1990 he formed his own EBM band "Terminal Warfare" in which he was the lead singer and has composed the songs.
He then joined the local band "Whippet Of Trench" as a keyboard player besides his own project one year later.

Due to him being a multi-instrumentalist, he was asked to play guitar/bass and keyboards 

for a couple of shows with the local industrial band "The Unknown" in 1993.
As an enthusiastic fan of death-metal, he also found himself in loose collaborations with local death-metal bands 

as an audio-engineer/guitarist for their demo-recordings in the studio.
After a long time of inspiration the second Xenomorph album "Qlippoth" was released in 2003

on Gnostic Records which is Xenomorph's own record label.

Until today Xenomorph has continued to produce cutting-edge dark electronic music and he has done 

the mastering post-production for more than 30 releases of various labels.
In November 2007 the 3rd Xenomorph Album "Demagoguery Of The Obscurants" was released.

It contains 10 quite different tracks packed into an elaborate concept critically reflecting current, past 

and future world events already prophesizing the economic crisis of 2009 and the formation of the New World Order.

Memory

Jackal's Truth ‎– Promo 98 (Demo 1998)

Country: Greece

Tracklist

1. The Quest Of The Ultimate Knowledge 07:24
2. Acherontas 05:28
3. Fovos - The Two Horned Man (Bonus Track) 05:40

Jackal's Truth was formed in early 1996 in Larissa, Greece by Kostas (vocals/guitars) and George A. (drums).

In the summer Zacharias (guitars) and George (bass) joined the group to complete the lineup.

In the autumn of 1996 they went to the studio to record their debut demo "Dominus Silvae" which was released in 1997, 

with the help of Agapi (female vocals) and Grigoris P. (keyboards/sound engineer).
The respond that the band got for their demo was great and helped them to perform live 

with bands such as Rotting Christ, Kawir, Exhumation and other local bands.
After the demo was released, Stefanos (also member of Stardrowned) joined the band as their keyboard player 

while Greg replaced George on bass and the band went on and recorded their 2nd release, 

called "Promo 98" which was exclusively for record companies.
The tracks on the promo were more extreme, technical and melodic than the ones on the demo.
Unfortunately, Jackal's Truth didn't make it in time and the band split up in 2000.
The Memory link contains as a bonus the amazing track "Fovos - The Two Horned Man".

Memory