Aquarius Records has spilled a bit of proverbial ink on the first UNSEEN FORCES compilation LP
Grave Command: All Hallowed Hymns.
ORDER NOW or forever hold your piece:
V/A Grave Command: All Hallowed Hymns (Unseen Forces) picture disc
Not sure what the theme of this compilation is, but it hardly matters,
cuz holy shit is it amazing. From the art to the nearly all exclusive
tracks, from a weird array of outfits from weirdo Finnish black metal
to kosmische synth wranglers! Might as well just give a run down track
by track...
Ghoul are up first, but instead of their usual brand of metallic
mayhem, offer up a creepy ominous pipe organ intro. Yep, just pipe
organ, which leads directly into a track by late great eighties
Portland true (Christian) metal band Xinr, whose track of Judas Priest
style classic metal KILLS, replete with deranged laughter, and badass
vox that are weird and warped but so good. Local Sabbath soundalikes
Orchid deliver another dose of uncanny Ozzy era Sab worship, and as
always, it's a dead ringer for the original, and thus, sounds amazing!
Then our favorite fucked up weirdo black metal Finns, Ride For Revenge
spew a filthy primitive caveman dirge metal pound, all practice space
drums, crumbling distorted guitars, growled demonic vokills, and even
when they crank it up to doubletime, it's still a woozy midtempo
churn. The A side finishes off with Xander Harris, and some super rad,
creepy Carpenter like soundtrack synthscapery, ominous and sinister,
totally kick ass retro slasher flick score for sure!
The flipside starts off with Grave Violators, who we had never heard
before, and who traffic in grinding blackened thrash, with some
seriously unhinged vocals. The mighty Deceased are up next with some
classic metal menace, brand new, but sounds like it could have been
recorded back in the day. Occultation follow, and deliver what might
be one of the best tracks here, a sprawling epic of witchy proggy
female fronted doom, epic and haunting and heavy, definitely need to
hear more! Up next, also new to us Venenum, who kick out some serious
progged out metallic Voivodisms, with echo drenched vox and some
twisted arrangements, and finally, Danava finish things off, and like
Ghoul, forego their usual sounds and finish things off with the
perfect outro, all creepy synth horror movie madness. So good. And
perfect for Halloween listening.
And incredible packaged, garish cartoony cover art, which is also
featured on the A side of the picture disc, the B side an even darker
creepier drawing, and as things things usually are, quite limited,
only 1000 copies.
