Description

Double album on black vinyl with gatefold cover. Limited 250 copies

Well, this definitely was one of the most anticipated demo compilations for me. Altar – although isn’t as known as many of other early 90’s Swedish death metal – definitely belongs to my favourite acts of that period and I can truly say that their demo as well as the split album with Cartilage are milestones of the genre. So I guess it was only a matter of time, when someone was about to decide to compile them all on one album. Titled “Dark Domains 1989-1995”, it kicks off with the “Ex Oblivione” material from Altar’s split with Cartilage and I can truly say this is their best material. Those five tracks are classic death metal tunes, which are in many places dominated by infectious melodies (think of Amorphis and Epitaph for instance), but despite that the whole material do not lacks aggression at all. It still is damn violent and neck breaking piece, with some hints of British death metal acts, as well as the likes of Messiah, or Polish Betrayer and Hazael. This is great stuff, really, well worth to be recommended to everyone, who’s into the old death metal bands, not necessarily the Swedish ones. The moody production of Swano’s Gorysound also deserves your attention I think. Then “Dark Domains” offers five tracks, which I have not heard before and thus they were one of the special reasons why I wanted to purchase this album. You know, while “No Flesh Shall Be Spared” demo was quite popular, then the two demos from 1993 and 1994 were completely unknown, at least to me. My impression on them is slightly mixed though, I’m afraid. The band have lost some of their aggression and atmosphere that were present on the first demo as well as on their split material and instead opted for more and more technical and complex, and melodious playing, which started to take annoyingly a lot of influence from At the Gates and very early In Flames. But I don’t want to say that I don’t like those two demos just because they become too melodic (because they’re not too melodic, they’re more melodic than the previous efforts, but that’s all). It was rather the fact that well… the quality of these materials is not that good, simple as that! Especially those 1994 songs are terribly mediocre. From 1993 demo I can at least say that there are some cool parts, when Altar plays more technical stuff and there are even some doomy influences in “Floodgates of Emotions”, and so the demo is fine, even though its production is very flat and again I am not 100% impressed by those sudden tempo changes or technical parts. And then 1994 material is just emotionless, I don’t like anything of it, it seems like the band was going in circles with their riffs, they dropped the aggression and everything I liked on their earlier recordings and just went for mediocre fusion of At the Gates and “Lunar Strain”. Even the vocals of Altar’s vocalist on that demo (who was Mieszko Talarczyk, later in Nasum), were not that good. Two things surprised me though – one was the fact that the compilation lacks one song from 1994 demo, I don’t know why the label didn’t put it here. And another was the melody in “Violent Acts”, which – trust me – is purely taken off „The Last of the Mohicans” movie. Out next is the “No Flesh Shall Be Spared” 1991 demo, which is just a crusher and one of my favourite Swedish demos ever. The music is brutal, dark and massive, it’s not 100% style wise, as it’s not so melodic, it has many riffs, which you can compare to some American bands or European titans like Benediction and early Gorefest and there are even some more thrashing parts, which is really cool.

Track list:
1. Nothing Human-from split with Cartilage 1992
2. Lifeless Passion-from split with Cartilage 1992
3. Daymare / A Message From The Grave-from split with Cartilage 1992
4. Decapitated-from split with Cartilage 1992
5. Ex Oblivione-from split with Cartilage 1992
6. Sleeping Prophet-from 1993 demo
7. Floodgates Of Emotions-from 1993 demo
8. Darklight-from 1993 demo
9. Violent Acts-from 1994 demo
10. Days Forever Grey-from 1994 demo
11. Severed On The Attic-from No flesh Shall Be Spared 1991 demo
12. Decapitated-from No flesh Shall Be Spared 1991 demo
13. Hallucinations-from No flesh Shall Be Spared 1991 demo
14. No Flesh-from No flesh Shall Be Spared 1991 demo
15. Instrumental-from 1995 demo
16. Severed On The Attic-from split with Cartilage 1992
17. No Flesh-from split with Cartilage 1992