▄▄▄ ▄▄▄█▀▀▀▄▄▄▀█ ▄▄▄▄▀▀▀▄▄▄▄██████ █ ▄▄▄▄ █▀▄▄▄▄███████▀▀████ █ ▄▄▄▄▀▀▀▄▄▄ ▀ ██████▀░ ░ ████ █ ▄▄▀▀▀▄▄▄▄███████ ░██████ ░ ▄███▀ █ ▄▄▄▄ ▄▀▄▄███▀▀▀▀ ▀█████░ ██▀▀ ░ ███▀ ▄▀ ▄▄▄▄▀▀▀▄▄▄▄▀▀ ▀▀████░ ░ ░█████ ▀ ░ ░ ▄███▀ ▄▀ ▄▄ ▄▄▄▀▀▀▄▄▄▄████████ ░ ████ ░ █████░ ░ ███▀ █▄▀▀ █ █ ▄▄████▀▀▀ ▀█████ ░ ████░ ░ ░█████ ░ ▄███▀ ░ ▄█ █ █ ▀████░ ░ ░█████░ ████ ░ █████░ ░ ███▀ ░ ▄▄████ █ █ ████ ░ █████ ████░ ░ ░█████ ▄███▀ ░ ██████ █ █ ████░ ░ ▄▀▀▀██░ ░████▄▀▀▀▄ █████░▄▀▀▀██ ▄▄▄▄██████ █ █ ████ ░ █ █ ░ ████ █ ██████ ███████▀▀▀▄▄▄▀ █ ████░ ░ █───██░ ░█████───█ ████▀ █───█▀▀▀▄▄▄▄▀▀▀ █ ████ ░ █═══██ ░ █████═══█ ▄█▀▀▀▄ █═══█▀▀▀ █ ████░ ░ █ █░ ████ ██ █ █ █ █ ████ ░ █ █▄██▀█ ██───█ █ █▄ █ ████░ █ ▄▄█████▄▄ █═══█ █ ██▄ █▀ ████████ ██████▓▓███ █ █ █ ███▄ █▀▄█▀▀▀▄▄▄▄ █ █████████▓▓██ █ █ █ ▀█▓█▄ █▄▄▄▀▀▀ █▄███████████▓▓██▄█ █▄▄▄█ ▀█▓██▄▄ ▄▄█████▓▀▀▀ ███████████████ █ █ ▀▀▓█████▄▄ ▓████▓▄▄▄ █████░███░███ █ █ ▄▄▄▓████ ▀▀▀███████▓▄ ██████░████ █▄▄▄▄▄█ ▄▄▄▓██████▀▀▀ ▄███▀ ▀▀█████▀▀ ▄▄▓██████▄ ▄███▓▀ ▀▀▓███▄ █████▄ ▄█████ ▀████▓ :[ DA-DUDEZ PRESENTS ]: ▓█████▀ ░██▓█ █▓██░ ▄▄███▀▀ ▀▀███▄▄ ▄▄▄███▀▀▀ ▀▀▀███▄▄▄ ▄▄█████▓▀▀ ▀▀▓█████▄▄ ▓████▓▄▄▄ VA - True Kings Of Norway ▄▄▄▓████▓ ▀▀▀███████▓▄▄▄ ▄▄▄▓███████▀▀▀ ▀▀█████▓ ▓█████▀▀ ▄████▓▀ ▀▓████▄ ▄▓███▓▀ ▀▓███▓▄ ▄███▓▀ ┌┬─┬─┬─┬─┐ ▀▓███▄ █████▄ █▄ ├┤││┌┤││└│ ▄█ ▄█████ ▀█████▓ ▄▄▄▄▄████████████■ ││││┌┤││┐│ ■███████████▄▄▄▄▄ ▓█████▀ ░███▓█▓███▓▀▀▀▀▀ █▀ └┴┴┴┘└─┴─┘ ▀█ ▀▀▀▀▀▓███▓█▓███░ ▄███▓▀ ▀▓███▄ ▄██▀▀ ▀▀██▄ ▄█▀ ARTIST.....: VA ▀█▄ █▓ ALBUM......: True Kings Of Norway ██ █▒ YEAR.......: 2000 ██ █░ LABEL......: Spikefarm Records ██ █░ ██ █░ RLZ-DATE...: 06/21/2008 STREET-DATE...: xx/xx/2000 ██ █▒ RIPPER.....: Team-DDZ SUPPLIER......: Team-DDZ ██ █▒ TYPE.......: Compilation GENRE.........: Black Metal ▓█ █▒ TRACKS.....: 13 SIZE..........: 115,5 MB ▓█ █▒ ▓█ █▓ SOURCE.....: CDDA ▒█ █▓ QUALITY....: VBRkbps / 44,1kHz / Joint-Stereo ▒█ █▓ GRABBER....: EAC 0.95b3 ░█ ██ ENCODER....: LAME 3.97 ░█ ██ ▒█ ██ ┌──┬─┬─┬─┬┬┬┐┌┬─┬┐ ▓█ ██▄ █▄ └┐┌┤││││┌┤││├┼┤└│└┐ ▄██ ██████████████████████████████████████■ │││ ┤ │└┤ ┤│││┐│┌┤ ░░▒▒▒▓▓▓▓████▀ ██▀ █▀ └┘└┴┴┴┴─┴┴┴─┴┴─┴─┘ ██ ░ ██ ░▒ ██ NB. TRACKNAME TIME ▒▓ ██ ▓█ ██ Emperor : As The Shadows Rise ██ ██ ██ ██ 01 | The Ancient Queen [03:41] ██ ██ 02 | Witches Sabbath [05:56] ██ ██ 03 | Lord Of The Storms (Evil Necro Voice From Hell ██ ██ | Re-Mix) [01:58] ██ ██ ██ ██ Immortal : Immortal ██ ██ ██ ██ 04 | Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism [00:41] ██ ██ 05 | Unholy Forces Of Evil [04:28] ██ ██ 06 | The Cold Winds Of Funeral Frost [03:45] ██ ██ ██ ██ Dimmu Borgir : Inn I Evighetens Morke ██ ██ ██ ██ 07 | Inn I Evighetens Morke (Part 1) [05:26] ██ ██ 08 | Inn I Evighetens Morke (Part 2) [02:07] ██ ██ 09 | Raabjorn Speiler Draugheimens Skodde [05:03] ██ ██ ██ ██ Ancient : Det Glemte Riket ██ ██ ██ ██ 10 | Det Glemte Riket [06:53] ██ ██ 11 | Huldradans [05:56] ██ ██ ██ ██ Arcturus : My Angel ██ ██ ██ ██ 12 | My Angel [05:55] ██ ██ 13 | Morax [06:26] ██ ██ ██ ██ ------- ██ ██ 58:15 min ██ ██ ██ ██ ┌─┬─┬┐┌─┬─┬─┬─┐ ┌─┬─┬┐┌─┬─┐ ██ ██ │││││├┤││││└┤││ │││││└┤││└┤ ▄█ ▄██ ██ │ ┤┌┤││┌┤ ├┐│┌┤ │││││┌┤┌┤┐│ ■█████████████████████████████████████████ ██ └┴┴─┴─┴─┴┴┴─┴─┘ └┴┴─┴─┴─┴─┘ ▀█ ▀██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ This really is an essential purchase for any Black Metal ██ ██ fan with an interest in the history of the genre and the ██ ██ bands that dominate it today. Rather than a compilation ██ ██ featuring current bands' output with a view to attracting ██ ██ more listeners, this is a compilation that documents the ██ ██ Norwegian Black Metal scene in the early 1990s. Contained ██ ██ on the CD are now legendary the demos from the following ██ ██ bands: Emperor, Immortal, Dimmu Borgir, Ancient and ██ ██ Arcturus. ██ ██ The inlay sheet is excellent, it contains details ██ ██ (including Cover Art) of each band's demo, plus ██ ██ photographs of each of the bands. On the other side of ██ ██ the sheet there is large annotated "family tree" showing ██ ██ the very complex relationships of bands and their members ██ ██ throughout the whole Norwegian scene from the early days ██ ██ up until now. It really does make interesting reading. ██ ██ Spikefarm have excelled themselves with this release by ██ ██ releasing a compilation of limited commercial appeal in ██ ██ order to resurrect the lost demos of these important ██ ██ bands. ██ ██ Emperor's take on Black Metal was originally called ██ ██ "Witching Metal" before they hooked up with Mayhem's ██ ██ Euronymous and initiated the infamous "Inner Circle". The ██ ██ production values on this recording here are the same as ██ ██ those on the Emperor demo; raw but good enough to capture ██ ██ all the instruments and vocals well. The low-fi ██ ██ production adds a great deal of atmosphere to the ██ ██ recording (high budget production values can ruin this ██ ██ type of music believe it or not!). ██ ██ Emperor's music has always been at the forefront of the ██ ██ genre, the rasping guitars and dreamy keyboards take it ██ ██ in turns to take the lead with the other supporting the ██ ██ atmosphere. The drums are excellent, Faust had a unique ██ ██ style, utilising hi-hats and cymbals a lot more instead ██ ██ of just playing fast blast beats etc. This band excel on ██ ██ all levels, compositionally they are great, their songs ██ ██ don't all sound the same, there are frequent time changes ██ ██ and a lot of imagination in their use of instruments. ██ ██ Immortal too have their own brand of Black Metal, namely ██ ██ "Holocaust Metal", quite an apt title considering their ██ ██ music is very much more straightforward and brutal than ██ ██ Emperor's. Immortal started out here playing a very ██ ██ stripped down and primitive form of metal (reminiscent of ██ ██ 80s thrash gods Celtic Frost). Famed for their rather ██ ██ fanciful song titles ("Tragedies Blows At Horizon" from ██ ██ their amazing "At The Heart Of Winter" album is a good ██ ██ one!), Immortal went on to record some classic albums and ██ ██ play some incredibly fast and brutal Black Metal (so fast ██ ██ that their guitarist Demonaz had to quit playing because ██ ██ of tendonitis in his wrists!). ██ ██ Listening to this demo may prove that Dimmu Borgir never ██ ██ really "sold out" because they are still basically ██ ██ playing the same stuff now as they did here (but to a ██ ██ greater level of musicianship). The first track of their ██ ██ demo is basically an atmospheric intro, complete with ██ ██ howling winds, piano and acoustic guitars, and it works ██ ██ pretty well. Track 2 leads directly on from the intro, ██ ██ into a solid Black Metal song with distorted guitars, ██ ██ gothic keyboards and throat-destroying vocals. ██ ██ The third track is very good, it conjures up quite a ██ ██ morbid atmosphere and has some pretty good riffs and ██ ██ soundscapes created with the guitar and keyboard ██ ██ combination. This track has been re-recorded a couple of ██ ██ times, once on their album "For All Tid" and again for ██ ██ the EP "Godless Savage Garden". ██ ██ Ancient always seems to me to be unfairly overlooked or ██ ██ underrated, often accused of sounding generic or ██ ██ uninspired. This is not true at all, especially ██ ██ considering they are one of the pioneering bands of this ██ ██ style. Musically speaking the band eschews brutality, ██ ██ instead adopting a more melodic approach to their art. ██ ██ The guitars are very fuzzy, almost to the point of losing ██ ██ their bite, the bass guitar more than makes up for this, ██ ██ and the result is an interesting sound - still grim ██ ██ sounding but strangely pleasant to the ear. Ancient's ██ ██ riffs are quite groovy, they have a kind of bounce about ██ ██ them which is difficult to describe but over the top are ██ ██ the screeches and growls of Grimm (who also plays drums) ██ ██ which bring the needed brutality into the music. ██ ██ Arcturus are a very enigmatic band, they have been around ██ ██ a lot longer than most people realise (this demo was ██ ██ released in 1991). The band take a more Avant Garde ██ ██ approach to the music than most, the two tracks presented ██ ██ here are very different to what the other bands have to ██ ██ offer. Instead of raging drums and crunching chainsaw ██ ██ guitars, the songs are underpinned by strange vocal ██ ██ effects which sound like a lot of people being tortured ██ ██ very slowly (you really need to hear it to understand ██ ██ what it means). Perhaps even weirder are the three words ██ ██ used in the first track "I love you". If you could pick a ██ ██ phrase which would be unlikely to appear in a Black Metal ██ ██ demo that would be it! But when you think about it, the ██ ██ emotion known to you humans as love inspires more dark ██ ██ moods and infinitely more depression and conflict than ██ ██ any other. Morax is even weirder, the track is long but ██ ██ there is only a small amount of singing, the rest is made ██ ██ up of samples and a carnival-esque keyboard line. ██ ██ Considering the off kilter approach Arcturus take their ██ ██ music is very effective. ██ ██ If you are a fan of Black Metal you must own this, it ██ ██ really gives an insight into the scene's underground and ██ ██ the history of the most well respected bands in the ██ ██ genre. Black Metal was always supposed to be about the ██ ██ atmosphere and moods created by the music rather than ██ ██ sonic violence, this compilation presents five different ██ ██ approaches which all have one thing in common, the ██ ██ atmosphere of the music. ██ ██ ██ ██ Ripper's Notes : ██ ██ The booklet comes with a huge flow chart tracking all the ██ ██ bands in which the members from the five bands in the ██ ██ split played in. ██ ██ This compilation features EPs as following : ██ ██ - "As The Shadows Rise" from Emperor (7" EP '94) ██ ██ - "Immortal" from Immortal (7" EP '92) ██ ██ - "Inn I Evighetens Morke" from Dimmu Borgir (7" EP '94) ██ ██ - "Det Glemte Riket" from Ancient (7" EP '94) ██ ██ - "My Angel" from Arcturus (7" EP '91) ██ █▓ ▓█ ▓▒ URL........: n/a ▓█ ░░ ▓█ ░ ┌─┬─┬─┬┬┬─┐ ┌─┬─┬┬┬─┐ ▓█ █▄ │┌│││││││││ │││││││└┤ ▓█ ▄██████████████████████████████████████████████■ │├┤ ┤││││┌┘ │││┌┤ ├┐│ ▓█ ██▀ █▀ └─┴┴┴─┴─┴┘ └┴┴─┴┴┴─┘ ▓█ ██ ▒█ █▓ ▒█ █▓ Da-DudeZ are a bunch of friends who enjoy good music. ▒█ █▓ Since August 2004, our goal is to bring you the music ▒█ █▓ we like, mostly rock/metal/goth/alt/indie/punk. ▒█ █▓ ▒█ █▒ We are not focused on quantity nor speed, but we're ▒█ █▒ working hard on producing high quality releases. ▒█ █▒ All our releases are ripped using EAC (Secure mode), ░█ █▒ compressed with LAME (-V 0 --vbr-new), formatted with ░█ █▒ lotsa attention (tags, releases infos, ...) and checked ░█ █░ very carefully. ░█ █░ ░█ █░ We're currently looking for affils 10/100mbit EU. ░█ █░ Don't hesitate to contact us. You know where to find us! ▒█ █░ ▒█ █▒ GREETZ......: To all the 'just for fun' ripping groups ▓█ █▒ out there. ▓█ █▒ ▓█ █▓ ██ █▓ ██ ██▄ :[ ASCii by The L3b0wsk1z ]: ▄██ ████▄▄ ▄▄████ ▀███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████▀ ████████████████████▄ ███████████████████▄▄ █████████████████████████ ███████████████████████▄ ███████████████████████▄ █████████████████████████ █████▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀███████ █████▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀███████ ██████ ███████ █████ ▀█████ █████ ▀█████ ████████ █████ ▄█████ █████ ▄█████ █████████ ▓▓▓▓▓ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ ▓▓▓▓▓ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ ▓▓▓▓▓ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░