Vampiria - The Second Coming

The title sums it up. Holy hell I have never heard such interesting music in my entire life. And by interesting, I mean different, and by different, I mean bizzarely entertaining.

For those who know Ceremonial Castings, you may be familiar with their more current symphonic black metal releases (Into the Black Forest of Witchery, Immortla Black Art, Barbaric is the Beast, Salem 1692). If you're expecting that same band, STAY AWAY from this demo. You will be incredibly disappointed. Again, see title.

With the clarifications out of the way, time to begin the actual review. This demo opens up with a pretty cheesy synth intro titled "The Second Coming." Witty, Nick. Second coming, second demo, hehehehehe. God I hate my life. Anyway, moving on, after the massive overdose of gothic/church/whatever orchestra keyboards, the first real "song" kicks in. "Levitated in Winter Skies" starts off with a pretty boring mechanical drum beat and a "spooky" (I emphasize the quotations here, this seriously sounds like children's halloween music) synth backing. Then the guitars kick in with an over-dramatic pick scraping before the first riff chimes in. BAM! Here's the entire song. The same drum beat, the same riffs, and the same chorus.

Doesn't sound too techno, right? Go ahead and skip the next five tracks. They all have the same cheesy gothic synthy abuse and clean singing on part of Jake Superchi. Listen to While Angels Cry. When I say listen to it, I mean TURN UP YOUR FUCKING SPEAKERS AND BLARE IT! A slow drum beat at first, and then suddenly, FULLY. FLEDGED. TECHNO. I kid you not, this is the best song on the demo. I mean it's techno with guitars, growling, clean singing, oh man, everything. I swear, I don't know what Jake Superchi was thinking when he wrote this song, but he must have either been A: stoned out of his mind, B: drunk out of his mind, or C: both. This is nothing unlike Ceremonial Castings has ever done, or will do again. It's pure genius. They've managed to take black metal, and completely flip it upside down. Ambient? Ceremonial Castings doesn't do ambient. Techno? HELL YEAH!

After this fucking MASTERPIECE of a song, Tears in Serenity and A Prophecy Foretold close this demo with another few doses of cheesy gothic synth abuse. Though the re-recording of A Prophecy Foretold is very well re-mastered on their Garden of Dark Delights EP.

Why the 100% score? Because of While Angels Cry. I can guarantee you, this is the single best demo I have ever come across simply because of that song. This isn't the Ceremonial Castings we all know and love-- it's BETTER.

For fans of Ceremonial Castings, this demo as well as most of their other demos are not so much like their current releases. This demo, personally stands out to me as being more gothic or doom metal related. The vocals are very gloomy and sad sounding. Some parts, I could even consider to have an 80's goth rock genre influence! This official sophomore demo from this band opens with a full on-scale symphony introduction created by Nick on synths, entitled " The Second Coming (Intro) ". Very significant and beautiful for an album build-up in this kind of musical direction. (Like COF/Dimmu Borgir Intro's) The melodies and feelings created by this release are filled with beautiful atmospheres and dark emotional orgasms. To the listener, be open-minded, let the great deep dark sadness take over! This demo is the perfect example of great musicians in action for one single idea that sounds like it could be considered a masterpiece in my perspective if certain things were corrected.

Many sections of this album sometimes sound extremely cheesy with the keyboard tones similar to the childish gothic nature Cradle Of Filth put out. Not to mention that many times, the vocals in this release are not the best but have direction that with the use of a better on-key melodic vocalist and better production could permanently accomplish this album's main attempt! I also hear the use of industrial elements in the keyboard arrangements. The music styles change radically throughout every track, but I noticed Track 2, "Levitated In Winter Skies", and Track 10, "A Prophecy Foretold", to sound very much the same, but the closing track 10 is slightly better. Many of the riffs remind me of low-budget Iron Maiden with gothic and black metal influences. Over all, this release sounds like Dimmu Borgir in their Enthrone Darkness Triumphant era, but using a vocal style similar to Dodheimsgard's 666 International release, mixed with Bella Morte, or Cinema Strange (goth rock) but with a more deathy or doomy metal style depending on the song! I have actually requested for Lord Serpent to re-record this material and re-release it, we'll see what happens.

This is one of the most interesting demos I have ever come across. For it is my belief that avante-garde artists will always remain the artists of true musicianship.

Stand-out tracks in order: Orchid,The Ancient God,A Prophecy Foretold,Haunted,While Angels Cry,Tears In Serenity