Description

A delicious piece of work. Not just the layout and music but also the 32-page A4 size fanzine that comes with the album. This is fully dedicated to Darkified. There are newly written liner notes, history and memories from the band, producer Dan Swano and Uffe from Entombed. There are also some scans from old fanzines with old interviews, photos, finally lyrics and details on both recordings. Damn, the booklet / fanzine is worth the price alone. Darkified was a Swedish death metal act from Soderkoping that only existed for two-three years in the beginning of the 90s. They debuted with the Dark demo cassette in 1991 and it was followed by the Sleep Forever single in 1992. Though some of its members did not go on to illustrious careers, Darkified is notable as one of the earliest works of Robert Karlsson (vocals for Edge of Sanity's Cryptic, vocals for Scar Symmetry, and has also worked with about a dozen other bands), and Jocke Gothberg (Dimension Zero, Marduk) and others. It's amusing that the two of them would go on to be vocalists for some of those bands, because here with Darkified they were the rhythm section, on bass and drums respectively. The vocals and guitars here are performed by Martin Gustavsson and Martin Ahx, with none other than Dan Swano contributing some keys and leads to the Dark demo material, and an additional acoustic guitar player (Jonas Amundin). Compilation album is usually pointless cash in things from greedy record labels of course there’s exception and one of them is when labels put together a compilation of a rather unknown band and their obscure 80s or 90s demos and other hard to track material. So if you didn’t run a fanzine, were living in Sweden or were a tape trader in the early 90s or have a huge wallet to get hold of the original releases now then this is a splendid way to get hold of these recordings. This is old school primal death metal in the vein of Authorize, God Macabre, Gorement, Sorcery and the like. The Dark demo consists of just over 10 minutes of material, 3 metal tracks sandwiched by an intro and outro. The intro seems ripe for some marginal 80s horror film, while the outro Out from the Darkness is a little more pleasant, if you could consider a demonic incantation over a stream of synth flutes and clean guitars pleasant. As for the metal tracks, Howlings from the Darkness begins with a creepy gothic ambiance, somber melodies initiating the buzzing grind of death, with Martin stretching out his voice in a few throwaway growls before the band lapses into a slower, death surge with a keyboard. A Summon for the Nameless Horrors opens in a storm of primal death, without evoking a very catchy riff, and a keyboard is also added later for some atmosphere. There's also a nice, if generic, groove breakdown. The Forgotten City is perhaps the best song from the demo, with some solid, decrepit chord work that reminds of very old school Entombed, and an eerie use of a rasp under the guttural grunts. Invoking Cthulhu is also a winning gesture, and in fact much of the band's material is Lovecraftian by nature. The Sleep Forever EP contains three tracks, one of which is a re-recording of The Forgotten City that exceeds the quality of the original, due to its denser production, and the finer tint of the synthesizer. Sleep Forever is likewise pretty cool, a gloomy death spiced in doom and light keyboards, with a gut-busting outbreak where the vocals rise to a level of sickening violence. The outro to Sleep Forever is a brief instrumental called The Whisperer in the Darkness which is all clean guitar strumming, drums and synth, once more with the horrific overtones. You can hear on Sleep Forever that the band has progressed and its not just tighter its also better executed and better produced. Dan Swano has put a lot of effort in the re-mastering of these old recordings. You can almost hear that he has tried to get more out of the recording then possible. I can honestly say that Darkified sounds better than ever before. Just listen to Sleep Forever and The Forgotten City, trust me you have never heard them so vicious before. Call it a tribute or call it a piece of art like I did. Whatever, this has been done with love and all I can say is if you have just a slightly interest in the Swedish death metal history then you must own this. Everyone involved have done an amazing job to secure this for generations to come. Get it before its to late Track listing: 1. Intro-from Dark demo 1991 2. Howlings From The Darkness-from Dark demo 1991 3. A Summon For The Nameless Horrors-from Dark demo 1991 4. The Forgotten City-from Dark demo 1991 5. Outro – Out From The Darkness-from Dark demo 1991 6. Sleep Forever-from Sleep Forever EP 1992 7. The Forgotten City-from Sleep Forever EP 1992 8. The Whisperer In The Darkness-from Sleep Forever EP 1992