Wednesday 31 July 2019

Cyclamen Valley – A Mist-Flowers Exhibition (1996)


Country: Belgium

Tracklist
1. First Thema For Antena 02:04
2. Winter's Garden 03:47
3. Flower's Grave 04:17
4. Quarter To Seven 04:25
5. Constance 03:30
6. Roses Of Final Flight 05:11
7. Mist Flowers Exhibition 03:02
8. Libero Stellarum 04:15
9. Aveux Et Anathemes 05:59
10. Caedes Sub Luna 03:15
11. Slowly Sink Into Obsession 03:25
12. Sweet Lust 02:22
13. Myrna's Domain 02:45
14. Selene's Trumpet 03:42
15. Heaven's Bells (Bonus Demo Track) 03:27

Cyclamen Valley was a Belgian project founded by Marc Durant (Nymphea Alba)
with the help of Gaetan Paternot and Heidi Kanters on vocals and lyrics.
In 1994 the band recorded a demo tape and in 1996 they released the CD "A Mist-Flowers Exhibition".
The music can be described as a mix of ethereal, neo-classical with some touches of darkwave.

Sunday 28 July 2019

Alsvartr – Ett Hedensk Land (Demo 1997)


Country: Norway

Tracklist
1. Ett Hedensk Land 06:23
2. As Ravens Fly 04:49
3. Bloodrevenge 04:46
4. Vikingferd 08:01

Alsvartr was formed in 1997 and consisted of Kjetil Dahlen on drums 
and Jan Steinar Myrvoll on guitar and vocals.
After a while Stian Bakkehaug joined as a bass player and Christer Pedersen joined on synths.
These four members played together for about 6 months 
before they decided to get Tommy Nikolaisen as an additional guitar player.
In October 1998 Alsvartr recorded their demo cd called "Ett Hedensk Land".
After the release of the demo they played on some conserts 
and supported bands like Aura Noir and Myrkskog.
In 1999 they released their live album entitled "Live In Eidsvoll
that featured new tracks beside their demo ones from their gig in Eidsvoll.
After many line up changes the EP "Evighetens Kall" was released in 2001.
Around 2004 a compilation/promo was released that included new tracks and also re-recorded versions of older songs.

Wednesday 10 July 2019

Penitent ‎– ...The Beauty Of Pain... (1997)


Country: Norway

Tracklist
1. Autumn Is The Beauty Of Pain 13:50
2. Black Is The Sun Shining 04:22
3. Into The Great Inferno 07:20
4. A Mournful Bridge Over A River Of Tears 10:56
5. Necropolis 05:15
6. My Secret Garden 08:05


Penitent was created in 1994, when Karsten Hamre (Arcane Art, Dense Vision Shrine, Veiled Allusions),
was obsessed by the idea of combining his poetry with music,
in order to create more powerful atmosphere than one could get by only reading his poems.
Not long after the creation, Asbjørn Log joined the band.
Together they made the material for the band's first and only demo tape,

which was recorded at Eternal Damnation studio and released in March 1995.
The band got offers from several labels, from which the well-known Swedish Cold Meat Industry 

was chosen for the release of the debut album "Melancholia" in 1996.
"Melancholia" was an album of sad and sombre, but majestic synth music,

which together with the spoken poetry awoke the most dark and depressive feelings.
In August 1996 Penitent signed for two albums on Draenor Productions, a division of Napalm Records in Austria.
During November Karsten Hamre spent his time at Sans & Samling studio and recorded

the second Penitent album "The Beauty Of Pain", which represented a drastic step forward for the band.
The synth sounds were largely replaced by piano parts

and the songwriting reached an utterly spellbinding level of development.
Most of the music was written by Asbjørn Log, except the final track,

which was written by Karsten Hamre, as well as all the poems were written by him too.
At about this time Asbjørn Log left the band, and Karsten Hamre became the sole member of Penitent

 releasing several albums from 1998 to 2007.