Rehearsal 1 - My Evil Soul

This is the second Moonblood release, and although it's not an official demo, it would be a grave mistake to avoid listening to this. Moonblood receives much praise for their 2 full lengths, but the rehearsals are largely ignored. Though these demos may be difficult to find, it is worth putting in the effort to track these down, even if you have to download them.

Released just a few months after Moonblood, this rehearsal marks a slight step up in the songwriting department, however, the production is still extremely raw. The guitars can be heard well in the slower parts, but are obscured by the other instruments when it speeds up. Similar to the first demo, the drums are difficult to make out, however, drums aren't that important for black metal, so it's not a big deal. This time around, the vocals are easier to make out, and you can really feel the hatred in Gaamalzagoth's voice. The hissing of a cassette can be heard in the background, but that's to be expected from rehearsal. This may turn some people off, but those who choose to bear through the harsh production will be rewarded with 50 minutes of pure raw black metal.

This rehearsal is mostly made up of long songs that mix epic Bathory riffs with fast Darkthrone inspired riffs. Although these influences are clear throughout the demo Moonblood gives their own unique take on this style of black metal. The songs are longer and have a bit more going on in them compared to the first release.

"When The Werewolf Howls" gets this rehearsal off to a good start, but it doesn't really pick up until the second song, "My Evil Soul". While the first song dragged on a bit in the slow parts, this one gets straight to the point, because it is mostly made up dark tremolo riffs. The slow sections are kept brief, but add to the epic atmosphere that this song creates.

Some faint keyboards are used in some of the songs. Keyboards can sometimes do more harm than good, but they are used to great effect here, as they are never at the forefront. Similar to Burzum, the keys serve only to enhance the atmosphere, while leaving the guitars as the main event. "Under The White Cold Snow" is interesting due to its opening riff. The guitars play a creepy melody that does well to create a morbid atmosphere that is much more haunting than some of the other songs. The song transitions into slow riffs that are accented by keyboards and guitar melodies played over the main power chord riffs, but the opening part reappears near the middle. This song along with "The Awakening of the Serpent" should have been revisited by this band on later albums.

The two songs that went on to be rerecorded are "My Evil Soul" and "...and the Snow Covered Lifeless Bodies". These obviously sound better on Blut & Krieg, but it is interesting to hear the earlier versions. The latter of these two sounds slightly darker on this demo as a result of the more necro production. Though they would create better material later on, the quality of this rehearsal is unmatched by most of Moonblood's peers in the German scene around this time.

My Evil Soul is an essential release for fans of Moonblood, but also for fans of grim black metal. Anyone who listens to this will understand why Moonblood is largely considered one of the best German bands. Even their early demos like this destroy most black metal, modern or not.

This is the first Moonblood rehearsal, as such, like much of Moonblood's earlier work,it creates the dark atmosphere I desire from black metal. Creating long epic song structures based around a primary spirit of evil and darkness, Moonblood really impress on this rehearsal, unlike other rehearsals (like the third) the sound quality is realtively good, presenting a sound that makes everything pretty easy to hear if you have the ability to understand recordings that are muffled. The sound at least is louder then other rehearsals, creating a dark hypnotic quality, wherein you can hear much of the instrumentation, but everything really combines to create an effect where all the instruments, while differentiated, also combine with one another to place the whole over the individual elements.

The songs are about evil, darkness and war, creating a lycanthropic spirit of hatred and decay, bringing about emotions that seem to master the ability to create the feeling of a cold winter or fall night, when the wind blows and the trees seem to shake with an unseen power. Like the hour of the wolf the songs desire to bring a nightmarish yet otherworldly cold atmosphere. Death seems to impress its power upon these recordings in the same way it does upon all truly important black metal albums and songs. One is taken into the dark frigid winter realm that Moonblood once inhabited.

While obviously inspired by the spirit of the Norwegians, Moonblood created their own dark world, creating from the place Bathory left off, and spiriting in a realm of their own. There is a great deal of originality here, and also a lot of unique qualities. You won't hear many other bands with this sound, except of course other early second wave bands with similar inspirations from the deepest of the dark crypts and bleak forests of the mind.

Moonblood on this rehearsal and much of their work before"Blut Und Krieg" (and a bit afterwards) seem to understand the true power and importance of black metal. They grasp the true spirit of darkness and evil that possessed all of the black metal bands of importance.

The music is in between the epicism of Blood Fire Death and the dark hateful and grim quality of the oldest Bathory. The atmosphere is obvious of the evil horror movie aesthetic of The Return or Under the Sign of the Black Mark, but with their own touches of medievalism and folk-ist beliefs. Obviously inspired by not only Satan, but the old German folk tales, a certain dark fairy tale atmosphere is present. Often one will hear pure black metal riffs connected to folkish riffs that never lose the evil presence of Satan and the coldness of the winter moon.

This is in essence everything one who truly understands black metal will look for. Dark epic song structures and a bleak sense of lo-fi production with none of the irony of many bands today, one can do nothing but be impressed by how much the folkish yet Satanic spirit is manifested upon these songs.

In essence, essential listening to true black metal spirits. To any poseurs stay away, this is true evil and true darkness, and nothing for those who do not truly understand the power and bleak darkness of true pure black metal.