Demoncy - Joined In Darkness

Artwork by Michael Riddick

Demoncy's Joined In Darkness from 1999 was remastered and re-released by Negative Existence in 2007. This is truly eerie black metal. The use of 7-string guitars and 5-string bass creates a bottom heavy almost doomy sound. The drumming is utterly mechanical, and the production sucks all remaining life out of this. Combined it is a droning wall of dread over which you can hear a corpse whisper to you in his inhumanly cold voice. Chilling tales about summoning evil:

Demonic entity of night
I call thy name
Come before me
Of thy own free will
Cursed are the sorcerers
That bind you against your will
Show thyself in true form
Thy hideousness is beauty

("Demoncy") or surprisingly beautiful odes to the eternal cold:

And after all has failed and died
The sun will turn to dusk
Earth becomes as cold as the souls within it
Sleep to last bright day
Awakened by the silence of snowfall
A beauty beyond belief
Embodied in eternal white

("Winter Bliss"). This is an album that may take a few spins before you succumb to it's dark atmosphere. It is generally hailed as an early USBM classic, and I think that praise is well deserved.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]