On a Snowy Winternight

Azhubham Haani would have to be one of the oldest Swedish second wave black metal bands, forming in 1989 and releasing all of it's musical output in the year 1992. Though the bad sound quality is forgivable due to the year and the nature of black metal, there is little to hear here that is truly captivating anymore, though this demo is a lot more balanced than most black metal bands are these days.

The demo is rather short, and since the first track is merely an intro atmosphere track there only four actual songs on this tape. There are several good things to be heard at once when listening to this release. The first is the use of clean guitars and some sparse synth in order to lend some variation to the instrumentation of the typical drums, bass, distorted guitar and vocals. The second encouraging thing that can be heard here is that there is neither an emphasis on complicated layers of dissonance nor on using exclusively half steps and minor chords to create an evil sound. The riffing on here is very basic, almost exclusively power chord based riffs that still have a dark enough feel to them.

The clean guitar (heard best on Where Death Has Reared Itself A Throne) is also a nice change of pace for the music. This isn't one of those thrown in clean riffs that some bands use "just because", but it actually creates a very nice progression that compliments the strained vocals very nicely. The vocals themselves are not the best I've ever heard, but again they are very listenable (for anyone familiar with the genre at a basic level). They are rather low in the mix and the guitar often takes the foreground in the songs. Bass is also to be heard at times and is overdriven with little actual low end to it, instead acting as a "guitar clone".

Drumming is hard to hear distinctly (as expected of a early 90s demo tape), but you'll always feel a steady pulse and will know where the time is. The drumming is also pretty basic, but I see this as a good thing because everything else also shows little technical prowess and the rudimentary sound fits the band well. Perhaps in the early 90s there would've been a different perspective on the production (probably to the effect that this is a underproduced cd), but I think these days a desire for a older less digitalized sound is more common in the average black metal fan, since so many bands overdo the distortion and fx these days. So if you are looking for some solid old school riffing, basic melodic and rhythmic work, a pretty organic sound, and a overall early second wave sound I would recommend this to you. Like the title says, this is a very solid cd, but it will fail to deliver any surprises or innovation if that is what you're looking for.