Monday 30 January 2023

Rites Of Darkness – Procreation Of The Dark Holocaust (Demo 1999)


Country: Greece

Tracklist
1. Intro - Procreation Of The Dark Holocaust 01:12
2. Pagan Dreams 05:55
3. Blasphemies Upon A Lost Dominion 03:45
4. Expressions Of My Macabre Desires 03:02
5. Toward's The Whispering Forest 02:14
6. The Fall The Othomanian Empire 02:14
7. Call From The Abyss 03:42
8. The Sign Of Evil Existence (Rotting Christ Cover) 01:18

Rites Of Darkness was a short lived black metal project created in the late 90s in Athens, Greece.
The band consisted of Enlil (vocals), Trollgrim (guitars) and Blackstorm (bass).
In 1999 a promo-demo was recorded entitled "Procreation Of The Dark Holocaust"
and a live performance was made around that time.
Warlord Sabathan Possessor (ex-Carpathian Lords, Caedes Cruenta, Cult Of Eibon etc.)
is also participating as a guest handling the drums.

Sunday 29 January 2023

Blood Original Soundtrack (1997)


Composers: Daniel Bernstein, Guy Whitmore, Mike Cody

Tracklist
1. Pestis Cruento 05:11
2. Unholy Voices 07:08
3. Dark Carnival 02:55
4. Infuscomus 04:37
5. Father Time 04:51
6. Waiting For The End 03:11
7. Fate Of The Damned 02:55
8. Double, Double, Toil And Trouble 02:08
9. Cryptic Passage 0:47

Blood is a 3D first-person shooter video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by GT Interactive.
The shareware version was released for MS-DOS on March 6, 1997,
while the full version was later released on May 21 in North America and June 20 in Europe.
The game follows the story of Caleb, an undead early 20th century gunslinger
seeking revenge against the dark god Tchernobog and features occult and horror themes.
Blood includes large amounts of graphic violence, a large arsenal of weapons
ranging from the standard to the bizarre, and numerous enemies and bosses.
Blood received largely positive reviews from critics upon its release, with many praising its creative level designs,
the humor (particularly its use of pop-culture references), atmosphere and its gameplay,
though some criticism was aimed at the game’s challenging difficulty.
It later gained a cult following from reviewers and it is considered to be one of the best games on the Build engine.
The Blood franchise was continued with two official expansion packs
titled Plasma Pak (developed by Monolith) and Cryptic Passage (developed by Sunstorm Interactive).
A sequel titled Blood II: The Chosen was later released on November 25, 1998.
The soundtrack to the game was composed by Daniel Bernstein, Guy Whitmore and Mike Cody.
Daniel Bernstein is a composer for video games and movies.
Born in Leningrad in the Soviet Union, he received a Bachelor in computer science
and an Master Of Arts in music composition from the University of Virginia.
Bernstein started in games in 1996 working in development and sound design.
He has also worked as a composer for Monolith Productions
where he collaborated with Guy Whitmore on titles such as Blood and Claw.
Outside of video games, he also wrote the soundtrack for the short movies "Kansas" in 1998 and "Maid Of Honor" in 1999.
Changing career, he joined WildTangent as the Director of Product Strategy, and later left in 2002 to create Sandlot Games.
While still acting as Sandlot's CEO, he returned to composition with the soundtrack to the film "The Penitent Man" in 2010.
Guy Whitmore is a composer specializing in video game music, notable for creating the soundtracks to Captain Claw,
Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, Russian Squares, Peggle 2, Shivers, Shivers II: Harvest of Souls,
Blood, Blood II: The Chosen, Shogo: Mobile Armor Division and No One Lives Forever.
He is the co-founder of a music production company called Music Design Network 
and a founding member of the Seattle Composers Alliance.
Guy Whitmore has specialized in creating "adaptive music" for video games, using techniques such as cross-fading,
location-based music, and techniques to render music "on-the-fly" rather than using "pre-rendered" linear tracks.

Sunday 15 January 2023

Krozier & The Generator – Tranceformer (1982)


Country: Australia

Tracklist
1. House Of The Sun 02:40
2. Khan-Khallili Razaar 03:27
3. The Devil May Care 08:23
4. Slave Traders 02:38
5. Land Of Unclean Spirits 04:03
6. Perhaps Reincarnation 02:02
7. House Of The Joker 08:27
8. Take A Look 04:56
9. Temple Of Exotic Delights 15:37
10. Feed You To The Sharks 01:47
11. Lapis-Lazuli 06:45
12. I´ll Be A Sphinx For You 01:37
13. Doubting Thomas 01:34
14. Paid Your Money 07:37

Geoff Krozier (Born Geofrey Thomas Crozier) was a music performance artist and avante garde magician.
His first connection with magik came when he amazed one of his teachers
by accurately predicting the placegetters in a school cross-country run.
A number of amateur appearances as an illusionist provided a slight insight into where he was going.
His first real break came whilst working as a set designer and props man for a Melbourne television station.
The booked act failed to turn up for a talent program, so he stood in and won.
Television appearances mushroomed nation wide, and by the late 1960’s the tendrils of rock and roll 
reached out and grabbed him and he often filled spots between main acts.
Geoffs first real complete stage show came with the formation of Croziers Indian Medicine Show,
a wondrous show of pyrotechnics, smoke and lighting effects with multi-decibel rock and roll.
It would be a mistake however to assume that the shows were well planned or well rehearsed,
it was more like ‘hold on’ for the audience, and, ‘hang on tight’ for his band.
As Duncan Fry, one of Geoffs earliest guitarists wrote:
“What he wanted was free-form continuous music for the 30 minutes or so that he performed,
while clouds of oily smoke, flashpots, and strobe lights alternately choked and dazzled the audience.
Most of the musicians who turned up for the audition couldn't handle such a laissez-faire attitude to the music side of things.
"But what songs are we going to play?" they would whine.
"No songs, just play, play" Geoff would reply, setting off another flashpot.”
Throughout the 1970’s Geoff and various incarnations of the Indian Medicine band toured Australia widely,
putting on performances, which ranged between brilliant and totally chaotic.
He was variously faced with stunned silence or rapturous scenes of mayhem as the audience went wild.
Despite the showings of appreciation, his act languished for the want of wider acceptance.
He lapsed into a deep depression and eventually left for America.
He worked with a variety of musicians and then disappeared again, this time to appear in Paris,
where he was the highlight act at the Olympia.
Another stint back in the USA followed, he formed Kongress, with noted keyboardist Otto Von Ruggins,
but he was tiring of the rock & roll element of his shows, and indeed felt a need to return to his native Australia,
and so it was he reappeared in Melbourne, Australia in the late 1970's.
It was then that he connected with the experimental group The Generator (aka Rainbow Generator),
a two-man outfit consisting of Rob Greaves on all manner of synths and rhythm machines
and David Labuschagne on guitar and synths.
Rainbow Generator had tried to produce something new and unheard in their studios.
Releasing dozens of tapes which were thrashed and no one ever seen them.
They come up with a full length in 1978 entitled "Dance Of The Spheres
that was released in 399 copies from which only 200 survived the floods.
Blending experimental electronics with tribal elements and using instruments like Didgeridoo
with some drony psychedelic rock fusions.
As Krozier & The Generator they played an intense series of shows in and around Melbourne in the later part of 1980.
In January 1981 he and the entire show, menagerie and all, relocated to the Fission Chips Studio
(a three story building in the squats of Woolloomooloo NSW), operated by Generator guitarist, David Labuschagne.
There was to be a lay-off while David shaped hours of recorded material together,
and Geoff devised a new set of illusions, all in preparation for a national tour.
Unfortunately Geoff Krozier died on May 17th 1981 at the age of 33,
from an accident at his home, before that tour manifested.
The double vinyl album "Trancerformer" was released in mid 1981 as a tribute to him
featuring tracks that were selected from recordings of the last live shows by the group,
between January 7th and 26th 1981, prior to Geoffrey´s death.
That album was subsequently re-released in in 2015 on the Finders Keepers label.