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Two lost demos remastered in a package well worth picking up.-
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| Lord Foul: Killing, Raping, Burning/The Devil's Advocate |
Black Metal
Forever Plagued Records
2009
Killing, Raping, Burning (Demo #1 1993)
- Raising Beast - 1:58
- False Messiah - 1:14
- Infernal Adulation - 1:21
- My King - 1:15
- I Burn for You - 2:46
- Holy One - 1:52
The Devil's Advocate (Demo #2 1994)
- Dead Man - 1:50
- Digested (In the Belly of Hell) - 2:11
- Heart of Lice - 2:00
- Fire Eater - 1:16
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| Review Information |
Release length: 20:17
Review posted on July 9th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 8.5/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Demo(s): |
Killing, Raping, Burning (1993) • The Devil's Advocate (1994)
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| Compilation(s): |
Killing, Raping, Burning/The Devil's Advocate (2009)
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| Review |
There happen to be two Lord Foul's in existence, one from Brazil and another from the United States. While both have made waves in the underground Black Metal scene, it's the U.S. Lord Foul that is the most illusive and infamous, and that's the band this release pertains to. Hailing from Louisville, Kentucky, this band has since split up, and never actually signed to a record label while still active. There were two demos recorded, but only one of these demos were ever actually released. Killing, Raping, Burning/The Devil's Advocate collects these demos, making the second, The Devil's Advocate, available for the first time ever through Forever Plagued Records in 2009. This compilation of the two splits are remastered from the original two demo tapes, and aside an item die hard fans of Black Metal will want to add to their collection, it's also like a history lesson on early Southern U.S. underground Black Metal.
Killing, Raping, Burning/The Devil's Advocate is, of course, a collection of some pretty raw recordings. At least, that is by today's standard. While still raw for their releases in 1993 and 1994 respectively, the quality of the songs really don't seem to be too bad, and the remastering done to the tapes really makes them sound clearer, though not really enhancing the overall production quality of the recordings. They still retain that Black Metal edge to them that seems a mixture of early second wave to mid-second wave Black Metal styles. The thing that becomes a little odd about these recordings is that the music seems like a combination of Black Metal and Grindcore styles together, and not just from the really short track lengths that never break two minutes, or for the most part even break one minute and twenty five seconds. "My King" and many other tracks feature plenty of blast beat action that seems to pop in during some of the more sinister sounding music with more conventional Black Metal material for it's time, and a but of distortion even used on the wailing, Immortal-like ritualistic vocal approach throughout the recording, yet still feel repulsive enough that you can say feels like some dirty Grindcore influence was incorporated.
First up is the Killing, Raping, Burning demo tape from 1993, and it's just a great raw and kind of dirty sounding Black Metal recording. These six songs work well to keep the listener attentive, as well as offer up nice displays of aggression and ritualistic early-second wave Black Metal ideas. This demo actually made it's rounds quite well, as the song "I Burn for You" was eventually covered by the German Black Metal act Nargaroth. This is perhaps the first time some fans of this style had ever heard of Lord Foul, and given the band's performance through the prior four tracks, it's a decent rendition of the original, and anyone who heard it may have been more then curious on that first rendition. On this recording though, the track doesn't really have much atmosphere going for it, but then none of the songs on these demo recordings do either, but it seems to not take the faster blast beats or other grinding influences into account during the performance, and really sticks to the song's more traditional Black Metal heritage. This happens to come before "Holy One" for some reason, and it does interrupt the flow a little bit considering the rest of the demo recording's shorter song lengths and the fact that the music doesn't feel like a traditional interpretation of the style in the first place.
The last five tracks of this demo recording come from the following 1994 demo tape The Devil's Advocate, and it shows a little more promise from Lord Foul then the first demo tape. The production quality is much stronger, being a little clearer then the previous demo, and the guitars are much sharper with vocals that are more energetic and not quite as ritualistic compared to the previous six tracks. The only real issue here is that the transitions between one song to another feel a little abrupt at times, with "Dead Man" hammering away until the end where it seems to almost stop before the audio actually comes to a close, and you're greeted with a brief moment of awkward dead air before "Digested (In the Belly of Hell)" kicks in. Sadly, this seems to happen on each track of this demo, though not always having that bit of a dead air in the recording, whereas the Killing, Raping, Burning demo had smoother transitions between each track. This demo also has a much stronger Black Metal presence, or at least it becomes much clearer that it is compared to the Killing, Raping, Burning demo thanks to the music being clearer and more discernable of it's style, though still feeling a little muffled to retain that raw sensation.
The music Lord Foul plays on both of these recordings are clearly short. One other thing the recordings do is often incorporate audio samples. While this isn't a good thing, some of them can be more then a little annoying. "Holy One" seems to drag on a bit with the audio clip that it has, and the audio sample at the start of "Heart of Lice" has a high pitch noise to it in the background that is so shrill it causes your ears to perk up in agony, as if it were from a dog whistle and you were the dog it was being used on. The same can be said with the starting audio sample of "Magnificent Rotted Soul" as well. It's also rather annoying that the audio samples on this recording are much clearer then the actual performances from the band. But those aren't the only issues with this recording. There are plenty of times where the drums simply seem to go slower then they really should be performed. This happens on both tapes, and it just seems to be when the double bass kicks are being performed for an extended amount of time, such as with "Infernal Adulation" and "Heart of Lice" where they slow down for a moment, as if the drummer is getting tired during the performance or just off beat for a second and trying to catch up, but no one corrected it for the final production for some reason. This isn't to say the drumming is bad either, as it's pretty strong for a recording like this, as the drumming through "False Messiah" is actually quite impressive.
Overall, there's a few problems from the original performance and the audio quality from one track to another, but what it comes down to it that this Lord Foul compilation is a release that anyone who claims to be a fan of Black Metal should hear. There may be no real atmosphere to the material, but it's obvious the band is pouring plenty of anger and energy into the recording. The remastering to the album makes the material sound clear, and overall it doesn't hurt or dramatically help the release, but in the end just becomes a much more enjoyable listen for two raw underground recordings that had been lost through time. If you happen to feel like taking a quick history lesson on a lost band from the style dating back to the early nineties, then Killing, Raping, Burning/The Devil's Advocate is a compilation that you should definitely pick up, especially since it compiles the only two recordings from this band, as well as has that illfated second demo recording (the latter of the two demos included here) that never saw the light of day, both with plenty of replay potential.
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