Epilogue / In the Glare of Burning Churches

This very rare release by Poland’s most appreciated black metal band, Graveland, is in fact a compilation that features the Epilogue demo from ’93 and a different (before unreleased) version of In the Glare of Burning Churches. The Epilogue songs have not been remastered.

The CD starts with a two minute ambient intro just to put the listener in the right mood. The atmosphere is very strange; the synth and effects have a creepy, otherworldly feeling. Before the intro is even over, the listener is ready to experience a trip to the European medieval times.

The Eyes of Balor is a weird little track, probably not in a good way because it fails to be interesting really. You just hear Darken letting out some groans, probably about setting wooden crosses on fire and restoring Paganism to modern Europe. The guitar sound is so “necro”, it sounds like Darken’s playing one chord through the entire song, which could perhaps make sense anyway, considering its shortness. Good thing it lasts little over a minute, it’s really not that interesting at all.

Shadow of Doom is more of the same, except it’s longer and starts with a sample featuring a female opera singer. I’m not sure what it is that pushed Darken to include this sample, but in the end, it is definitely a good thing because it somehow makes the song a lot creepier. The rest of the track is like The Eyes of Balor, alternating between slower and faster parts.

The Forest Nemeton is where things are really starting to become interesting. It starts with some pretty simple keyboards, then bang, the riffing finally starts! Darken’s voice sounds a lot raspier and “throatier” than on more recent releases (remember, Epilogue is very early Graveland stuff). Despite the very harsh riffing and necro production this song has an epic feeling that I really like.

The best track on the first part is Children of the Moon – very cold ambiance. Darken’s opening groans are fantastic. Great black metal vox, and fits perfectly with the music here. The feeling is just so dark and mysterious, because unlike some BM bands (most of them pretty generic), Darken only uses the keyboards to add more depth and atmosphere to his songs, and it always works.

Strangely enough, the Epilogue outro reminds me a lot of later Graveland stuff, and would have fitted albums like Following the Voice of Blood or Immortal Pride very well, considering its mood: happy and triumphant. Not dark and necro like the other tracks from Epilogue.

In the Glare of Burning Churches: this is where the second part of the compilation starts, as I said earlier even if you own ITGOBC the following songs are very different and do not have the same production to them (sometimes the different lies in the songwriting itself like in “The Dark Dusk Abyss”). After a very folkish, medieval sounding intro (I assume the girl screaming is a witch being burned), the song starts with another typical necro riff. After a few seconds the more “atmospheric” side of Darken’s music takes over, the music slows down a bit, the synth comes back to haunt the listener a bit more. Man, Darken’s screams are scary. They are a lot more high-pitched and aggressive than on the original version, and never fail so make me shiver. Now there’s a guy who genuinely hates Christians.

Next song, The Night of Fullmoon, is just as cold and hateful, but with a moderate tempo. There are still some keyboard parts here and there but there is more room for the riffing. It’s quite an easy song to play along, but it makes me wish I had a guitar sound like that. The riffs are just so damn necro sounding.

The Dark Dusk Abyss is the only track that completely differs from its ’96 version. The one we have here is an instrumental, and it sounds like an organ. Like all old Graveland instrumentals you can expect it to be dark and mysterious sounding. It’s slow, weird and creepy feel’n. Wonder how Darken manages to create the same atmosphere with all his instrumentals.

The last two tracks, Through the Occult Veil and For Pagan and Heretic’s Blood, sound a bit like In the Glare of Burning Churches, with a similar musical approach, the first being slower, the second being faster and a lot more “punchy”. Once again the keyboards are used wisely. They are rather scarce and only appear now and then to maintain the atmosphere. Without them, Graveland’s releases simply wouldn’t have the same aura of mystery and evil surrounding them. Anyway, this compilation ends in a perfect way in For Pagan and Heretics’ Blood, with Darken screaming his last curse words (“Fucking Jesus, fucking Chriiiiiiiiist!”), followed by an outro very similar to the intro, except there are no screams this time.

This compilation is obviously for BM fanatics only. If you happen to enjoy Graveland’s music a lot and like rare items, hunt this one down.

I picked up what I thought was a copy of "In the Glare of Burning Churches" at a used record store in Philadelphia to find out that this CD was accidentally placed in the case.

This disc is a combination of the demo "Epilogue" and a demo version of "In the Glare of Burning Churches".

Intro-This is a very basic but sweet intro. Pounding drums and chanting really creates an eerie atmosphere.

The Eyes of Balor-First off, to clarify, Balor only has one eye. Balor is the king of the Fomorians in Hibernian mythology. It was said that Balor could turn to stone anyone who he gazed upon with his one eye. Anyway, at 1:21, this is a fast paced simple pounding song that serves as a strong opener.

Shadow of Doom-Another amazing intro, chanting and drums and everything. This one kicks into a straightforward tremolo picked black metal crusher. The pace swings from slower to faster as the song proceeds.

Forest of Nemeton-Really beautiful beginning to this song, but ends up sounding like Shadow of Doom. Rob is great at creating some truly chilling atmospheres.

Children of the Moon-This is a slow paced crusher. This song just sounds fucking evil. There is basically only one riff that comprises the entire song but it is built up really well with the drum patterns Rob uses.

Outro-A more viking sounding, "victorious" outro.

In the Glare of Burning Churches-This is where the more advanced and later songwriting comes in. This song is a faster opener with a clearer mix and more up front sound. The atmospheres are still here in full force.

The Night of Fullmoon-More of the same.

The Dark Dusk Abyss-Nice instrumental.

Through the Occult Veil-Pretty nice opening riff, reminds me somewhat of Barbarism Returns. This song is a bit slower and more in the vein of viking metal.

For Pagan and Heretic's Blood-The disc ends with another straightforward black metal cut. Solid.


So I guess I'm pretty lucky to gotten ahold of this. The epilogue songs are really amazing, and it's a bonus to hear the demo versions of the ITGOBC songs.