A Touch of Medieval Darkness

In 1995, when Desaster members were writing songs for their debut album, the second wave of black metal had already delivered hundreds of records, many of which have turned out to be genre defining. As we all know, the source of the vast majority of this music was in northern Europe, especially in Norway. So when it came for the German trio (at that time they didn’t have a steady drummer, drums on the debut were played by a session musician) to come out of the underground with their first full-length release, they had plenty of inspirations to digest and had even managed to come up with some original ideas of their own.

A Touch of Medieval Darkness is filled with melodic black metal typical of mid 1990s era, with plenty of good riffs and melodies, almost non audible bass guitar and weak sounding drums buried in the mix. That can’t have been a problem for anyone even remotely familiar with black metal standards and I must say that Infernal’s melodic guitar passages carry off most of the songs with corresponding narratives present in Okkulto’s lyrics. The latter showcases rather typical black metal shrieks which tend to be medium-pitched with some minor diversions when, especially in slower parts, his voice reaches lower frequencies. As I have already stated, most of the lyrics are written in the form of narration describing Europe in the dark ages, when Christian soldiers wandered across the Old Continent, seeking pagan souls to convert to “the only true faith”. Don’t we all know it…

This approach works surprisingly well, at least in the songs built on pretty unoriginal, yet catchy riffs. And as it turns out, all of these songs are placed at the beginning of the album. After a lengthy intro fades out, “In a Winter Battle” kicks off with speed. It’s a composition typical for the genre, but with a solid and pretty interesting riff it opens the album nicely. Another stand out song is the title track, introducing folk/medieval guitar riff. While the previous tune was all about catchiness and speed, this one heavily relies on the atmosphere. Okkulto presents a gloomy and melancholic image “when the lie was brought to the kingdom of dreams”, which obviously hints at the crusades moving further and further north, spreading Christianity through the Middle Age Europe. The unholy trinity (of the most important tracks on the album) is complete with “Fields of Triumph” – a song which develops from a slower start into a steady medium-speed gallop. One can easily imagine a lone rider on a trusty stallion riding proceeding through the “woods of damnation” and fighting on the “fields of triumph”, against the cross-bearing Roman soldiers, of course.

The rest of the material on the debut is not as impressive, but I wouldn’t go as far as to call any of the remaining tunes a filler. We have some typical black metal high-speed riffing in “Into a Magical Night” (with nods to Darkthrone – even Okkulto’s shrieks bring Nocturno Culto’s trademark vocals to mind) and “Visions of Autumn Shades” and, in contrast, a slower track in the form of “Devil’s Sword”, where the singer spits out words before the pace eventually picks up toward the end of the song. There is also a very interesting experiment in the most ambitious composition from the early Desaster career, namely “Crypt of Dracul”, which nears the 9 minute mark and includes a variety of musical ideas: a very long instrumental introduction, some keyboard-enhanced passages verging on horror film soundtracks (think of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula rather than its elegant Gary Oldman rendition). Oh yes, because the lyrical content obviously deals with the blood-sucking protagonist of Bram Stoker’s immortal novel, in case you haven’t noticed. The last proper song on the album (“Porter of Hellgate”) is the oldest one, too and was written by Infernal in 1992. Stylistically it could be labeled as thrash metal, although the vocals are typical black metal shrieks. It must have been the first proper song written by Desaster good enough to deserve a place on the official album – its structure is simple if not simplistic, which is characteristic for bands that have only started writing their own material.

Overall, this album is not as weak as the naysayers claim, nor it is as great as its worshippers boast – it can’t hold a candle to classic records of the melodic black metal subgenre such as Dissection’s “Storm of a Light’s Bane”, Windir’s “1184” or anything from early Rotting Christ or Necromantia. Perhaps that’s why Desaster will soon begin to incorporate more and more thrash metal elements into their music, starting with Hellfire’s Dominion. Some thrash influences are already present on A Touch of Medieval Darkness (“Porter of Hellgate”, a bridge in “Into a Magical Night”), but Desaster’s debut should be treated as a pretty homogeneous melodic BM record. And fine as it is, too.

In the early days of the German thrash metal movement, bands like Sodom, Destruction or Iron Angel integrated black metal elements in their compositions. About ten years later, Sodom played punk songs, Destruction were irrelevant and Iron Angel no longer existed. In addition, Desaster's debut appeared in difficult times, because grunge and other innovations (or should I write innovations within quotation marks?) dominated the market for more or less metallic sounds. Desaster thus set a signal for dark underground metal and the guys were wholly concentrated on creating music, contrarily to some Norwegian guys that performed black metal as well as criminal actions a few years previously. This deserves a special mention, because it illustrated that the rebel spirit of metal was still alive. Nevertheless, let me start this review with the only annoying detail. The album sounds blurred and almost powerless. It is difficult to identify the single instruments. The bass drum, for example, can hardly be heard. It can therefore be said that the unclear contours of the interesting cover motif aptly fit to the sound of this debut.

But this does not really matter, because metalheads with a soft spot for blackened thrash will enjoy this output. Due to the mystic name of the album, Desaster enrich their songs with medieval sounding riffs. They do not appear in each song, but they are used effectively. The title track marks an example of a fine combination of metallic harshness and medieval melodies, while vocalist Occulto contributes the necessary black metal aura. Not only because of this songwriting formula, Desaster do not just appear as a reincarnation of a formerly worshipped legend. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that the title track prefers mid-tempo and this is no exception, because mid-tempo parts dominate this album. This has been a good decision due to the miserable sound. As soon as the tunes get really fast, the snare drum disappears. Perhaps you like to test "Fields of Triumph". It offers strong riffs and a convincing song structure, but as said above, the snare is disadvantaged during the up-tempo part.

However, Desaster score with their excellent guitar work during the whole album. Maybe it is getting most obvious when listening to the straight "Devil's Sword" that puts its focus exclusively on sharp and aggressive riffs. And there are more vigorous songs that run in the same vain and they all are of comparable quality. But very much on the contrary, "Visions in the Autumn Shades" presents itself as the most melodious track. You might almost call it a ballad, but it is neither lame nor boring. If you like its guitar line, you will surely enjoy it. If you do not appreciate its melody, it is equally certain that you will perceive it as disappointing. But although this song is not among the highlights, I like it because it provides an element of the unexpected due to its softer approach. By contrast, "Crypts of Dracul" constitutes a shortcoming. It is just too long - almost nine minutes - and offers an incoherent intermezzo. In addition, it hurts the flow of the album because of its oversized atmospheric intro. But fortunately, this remains an isolated case.

To summarize it all: even after more than 18 years, this debut stands for itself and was, also in retrospect, a first remarkable sign of Desaster's strength. It was not just a good album. Rather, it constituted a sustainable concept for the future, not least thanks to the balanced mixture of thrash riffs, black metal charisma and medieval elements. When the last tone of the bombastic outro has died away, you will probably press the repeat button.

There was something truly unique about the overall aesthetic of black metal's 2nd wave, a veritable cacophony of dark imagery that bucked the concept of popular culture far more than any flash in the pan 90s Top 40 act with claims to angst and rebellion. It's music that is too busy contemplating the endless possibilities of emotional expression and abstract pondering to even consider parodying the orthodoxies of rock music. And above all else, it's one of the few places where terror and beauty can coexist, where an insurgent romanticism cuts against the modernist grain while still employing elements of the modern world in crafting a new musical dimension. But truth be told, like any musical movement, it is quite firmly rooted in traditions that were developed by spiritual ancestors. Thus in the midst of the spreading of this tradition from the early adherents in Scandinavia and Switzerland, Germany found itself in the middle of this auspicious happening with a seminal offering out of Desaster, a band that actually dates back to the late 80s when death metal was more of a factor.

While the imagery and name of Desaster's debut LP could easily be likened to a pure black metal one that was becoming more widespread by 1996, applying the black/thrash label to the musical contents of "A Touch Of Medieval Darkness" is an essential one in differentiating it from most of Norway's earlier offerings. Indeed, one might be tempted to expect a symphonic tinge not all that dissimilar from coinciding works out of Satyricon, Emperor and Dimmu Borgir before things really get going, but the true flavor of this musical experience has much more in common with pre-Viking era Bathory's mode of blackened thrashing, but reinterpreted in a manner that accounts for the first 2 studio offerings of Immortal and dressed up with the occasional ambient keyboard section that was more of a staple of mid-90s black metal after albums like "In The Nightside Eclipse" and "Dark Medieval Times" set the new standard. It's inescapable when hearing the obvious early Sodom influences on the riff work, which while still exhibiting the melodic contours of the day, has much more of an old school punch than the frostbitten fuzz character that generally typifies mid 90s offerings out of Gorgoroth, Darkthrone, and a few other bands more readily associated with the straight up mid 90s approach.

The most alluring aspects of this pitch black musical excursion is the care taken to detail and the consequential ambitiousness in relation to the general drive towards simplicity and repetition. It takes on a sort of epic soundtrack character when taken in as a whole, though built out of easily separable chapters that stand quite well on their own. Indeed, the keyboard instrumentals that begin and end this album, along with the battlefield march character of the middle interlude of "Crypts Of Dracul" lend to a sort of dark chivalry and romanticism that taps the ambient character of Burzum's experiments with keyboard minimalism, while also exploring the symphonic depth and dimensions of Emperor. By contrast, much of the standard songs reach back to something a bit older. Case and point being the general scarcity of overt blast beats and a heavier reliant on the older, coasting speed/thrash character of drum work, though when blasting does occur it does bring about a fairly familiar character of sound readily associated with "Under A Funeral Moon" but with a guitar sound more in line with the late 80s thrash mode of crunch and touched up a bit.

Standout moments are many, and tend to point to a consistent adherence to a balanced atmosphere where nothing fully overtakes the rest of the arrangement. The opening song "In A Winter Battle" has a very catchy melodic contour to the guitar work, almost hinting at a mid-80s heavy/power metal character, while the vocals wail away with a cold, garbled bark not all that dissimilar to Satyr's formative vocal work at around the same time period. Nipping at the heels of the memorable first anthem is the title track "A Touch Of Medieval Darkness", which introduces a bit of folksy melody in the guitars before settling into a mid-paced groove and reminding quite heavily of the Viking character of Immortal's less blast-happy work on "Pure Holocaust". But the real moment of absolute glory is the towering epic "Crypts Of Dracul", which brings in the larger sounding elements of Bathory's Viking era into the mix and paints a vivid picture of Wallachian soldiers facing difficult odds against the onslaught of Ottoman invaders. It stands as one of the more outwardly ambitious works to come out of the black metal style at this time period, a time where Emperor and Enslaved were beginning to move away from their own established traditions, traditions which closely resembled the massive feel of buildup and explosion contained within this song.

It's pretty easy to get caught up in what was going on in Norway at this particular time period in black metal's history, but that isn't the only region that was putting out enticing example's of the style's potential. Granted, Desaster represents a slightly higher fidelity and more accessible answer to the Scandinavian 2nd wave that is more conducive to fans of older works out of Venom and Bathory, but ultimately it hits equally dangerous territory and is sadly starved for a larger audience. For 1996, this is definitely a candidate for new classic and should be sought after by anyone with a taste for dark yet vivid musical landscapes. Whether the battle be in Northern or Eastern Europe, the hordes of darkness shall prevail yet again.

This album came out in 1996, and the date on that seems pretty reasonable, though it reflects metal evolving in a much more favourable direction than what the rest of the world had been doing in that year (Great Southern Trendkill, anyone??). Imagine the second Bathory LP, except with thrash breaks a la the first full-length Sodom, and more epic in construction (later Bathory, middle era Immortal), and also pretty cleanly played, not like the sloppy aforementioned Angelripper and pals, or Hellhammer.

I can't see this album coming out in 1985, but 1989 perhaps, and certainly anything after that, even as the rest of the world fell off the map; it's good to see a band formed in 1988 plug away at playing something that sounds correct, as opposed to trying new things for the sake of trying new things. Memo to Faith no More: try drinking anti-freeze for the novelty value.

Production is pretty decent; the guitar tone just the slightest bit artificial sounding, as digital technology was starting to take the place of low-budget analogue equipment in independent studios, but certainly nothing to complain about. I'm pretty sure it's digital because some of the distortions patterns don't fade exponentially, like just about every analogue piece of work out there. Still, this is modern well-produced black metal. Note that I said black metal, not fucking Cradle of Shit. This is powerful and raw, and just enough buzzsaw - somewhere firmly between Venom and Countess.

Songwriting - for the most part, speed metal riffs dominate, with the typical second-wave-black sound of one guitar galloping a fast riff, while another plays a slower melody. The relative intensities of the two are varied, with sometimes one omitted entirely, and on occasion the galloping speed riffage turns into an entire thrash piece, a la later Sodom. Drums for the most part are standard 80s, with a few blast-beats thrown in there. Bass is present, though nowhere near overwhelming. Vocals bring to mind the frog-like croak of Immortal, more so than Quorthon, Cronos, or Angelripper, though those three are certainly influences.

Riffage is occasionally Slayer-ish, such as the intro to Into a Magical Night, which is variations on the Raining Blood theme. Flames of Triumph is a constant adventure, going through several moods in its nearly six minutes, most of them aping one Bathory bit or another - a speedy Stained Class intro goes into a break with lots of shrieks and fast drums, being the most black-metal part of the album, and then back to galloping. A Touch of Medieval Darkness is all-out thrash, except with the second guitar playing the melody parts. Sure, this is melodic black metal, but not of the cheesy kind, where the riffs are gone.

Even the intro and outro stand out and deserve their own paragraph. The outro is in two parts - a guitar-driven riff set followed by some haunting keyboards. But if you want the Best of the Best in haunting keyboards, check out the intro. Skyline in Flames isn't quite enough to make the album a "must buy" in and of itself, but it comes close, which is a damn good accomplishment for a non-metal intro to a metal LP.

Recommended, when all is said and done. If you like your black metal epic without being pretentious, and firmly based in the ideals of old Bathory like it should be, then this one is certainly up your alley.