Macabre Omen's mighty Greek mythology inspired take on Black Metal had carved a memorable niche. With word of a new record I snapped up the new release, embracing its epic fourteen minute opener, ready for a ravishing ride. Then hit by a big tonal shift in quality and style I realized something was up, as the next six songs went to a nostalgic realm. Doing my research, something I thought I would have done with Gods Of War, I've learned this band have been active since the post church burning years of 94 onward when the scene exploded with bands getting in on the act.
Anamneses is actually a compilation, one new mighty song accompanied by all their demo songs from 1995 to 2000, remastered. The quality is interesting, one can hear the scratchy, murky guitars were far from saving. Shrill howling screams still raw and blunt, the drums to a rickety racket of pummeling droning. The bass guitar somehow has a fair bit of color an pronunciation preserved. The synths sounding practically rebuilt from the ground up, possibly with renewed tones and aesthetics too.
I haven't listened to the tapes for comparison but one can hear all the hallmarks of these classic self produced demos distributed on cassette tapes. Its quite the fun experience as the musical compositions do stand apart from what was common at the time. Some anthemic ideas still heard in their music decades later are present but the overall tone is dark, gritty and damned ugly! Especially the first couple of demos. A harsh experience, not exactly entry material into the world of Black Metal.
These old songs offer quite the variety! Interesting arrangements of synths and acoustic guitar conjuring a keen and individual sense of atmosphere not heard so distinctly among others in the genre. More so in the later years, the band clearly progress over these demos. The new song too embellishes this flavor with its mythic sweeping acoustic guitars, smothered in roomy reverberations, championed by choral cries to lead into a lofty song of complexity, subtly integrating the acoustics over and over. Great listen but a novel one that is hard to parade as an album experience.
Rating: 4/10