Double album onblack vinyl with gatefold cover. Limited 250 copies

Well, thisdefinitely was one of the most anticipated demo compilations forme. Altar – although isn’t as known as many of other early 90’sSwedish death metal – definitely belongs to my favourite acts ofthat period and I can truly say that their demo as well as thesplit album with Cartilage are milestones of the genre. So I guessit was only a matter of time, when someone was about to decide tocompile them all on one album. Titled “Dark Domains 1989-1995”, itkicks off with the “Ex Oblivione” material from Altar’s split withCartilage and I can truly say this is their best material. Thosefive tracks are classic death metal tunes, which are in many placesdominated by infectious melodies (think of Amorphis and Epitaph forinstance), but despite that the whole material do not lacksaggression at all. It still is damn violent and neck breakingpiece, with some hints of British death metal acts, as well as thelikes of Messiah, or Polish Betrayer and Hazael. This is greatstuff, really, well worth to be recommended to everyone, who’s intothe old death metal bands, not necessarily the Swedish ones. Themoody production of Swano’s Gorysound also deserves your attentionI think. Then “Dark Domains” offers five tracks, which I have notheard before and thus they were one of the special reasons why Iwanted to purchase this album. You know, while “No Flesh Shall BeSpared” demo was quite popular, then the two demos from 1993 and1994 were completely unknown, at least to me. My impression on themis slightly mixed though, I’m afraid. The band have lost some oftheir aggression and atmosphere that were present on the first demoas well as on their split material and instead opted for more andmore technical and complex, and melodious playing, which started totake annoyingly a lot of influence from At the Gates and very earlyIn Flames. But I don’t want to say that I don’t like those twodemos just because they become too melodic (because they’re not toomelodic, they’re more melodic than the previous efforts, but that’sall). It was rather the fact that well… the quality of thesematerials is not that good, simple as that! Especially those 1994songs are terribly mediocre. From 1993 demo I can at least say thatthere are some cool parts, when Altar plays more technical stuffand there are even some doomy influences in “Floodgates ofEmotions”, and so the demo is fine, even though its production isvery flat and again I am not 100% impressed by those sudden tempochanges or technical parts. And then 1994 material is justemotionless, I don’t like anything of it, it seems like the bandwas going in circles with their riffs, they dropped the aggressionand everything I liked on their earlier recordings and just wentfor mediocre fusion of At the Gates and “Lunar Strain”. Even thevocals 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 1994demo, I don’t know why the label didn’t put it here. And anotherwas the melody in “Violent Acts”, which – trust me – is purelytaken off „The Last of the Mohicans” movie. Out next is the “NoFlesh Shall Be Spared” 1991 demo, which is just a crusher and oneof my favourite Swedish demos ever. The music is brutal, dark andmassive, it’s not 100% style wise, as it’s not so melodic, it hasmany riffs, which you can compare to some American bands orEuropean titans like Benediction and early Gorefest and there areeven 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

Condition cover:nm

Condition vinyl: nm

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Skickgradering:

M (mint)/NM(near mint) = Nyskick/Mycket bra exemplar
EX (excellent) = Mycket fin och välvårdad
VG+ (very good +) = Bra skick, normalanvänd skiva
VG (very good) = Sliten men spelar ändå bra
G (good) = Väldigt sliten skiva som kan hacka
+/- = mindre skillnader inom graderingsområdet