Description

2017 press. Double album on white vinyls with gatefold cover. Limited 500 copies

Mütiilation was the best-known of the French Black Legions, which also included the likes of Vlad Tepes, Belketre and Torgeist. They had spent a few years recording various demos and even an album that sat on the shelf for six years. In 1995, they released their first full-length album, Vampires Of Black Imperial Blood, through Drakkar Records. The atmosphere is mournful and dark, but not always to the same extent as the songs on Remains Of A Ruined, Dead, Cursed Soul. While the sound quality is better, the actual material sometimes, falls a little short in attaining the level of misery that the band sought. One gets the impression that a lot of influence has come from Norwegian bands like Darkthrone and Burzum, yet with something else added. Beyond just emulating their neighbours to the north, Meyhna’ch and company inject the music with a poisonous quality that makes the listener feel somewhat afflicted with the same mental sickness that, clearly, plagues the band members involved. Vampires Of Black Imperial Blood is a grim and mournful black metal album that would mark the end of Mutiilation’s first period. The band would fall silent for some time, finally releasing the 1993 material by the end of the decade and then returning to create music in somewhat of an altered manner. Despite any shortcomings, this album may possess, it is definitely worth getting.

Track list:
1. Magical Shadows Of A Tragic Past
2. Born Under The Masters Spell
3. Ravens Of My Funeral
4. Black Imperial Blood
5. Eternal Empire Of Majesty Death
6. Transylvania
7. Under Ardailles Night
8. Tears Of A Melancholic Vampire