Yes, this is Arkona's two demos put onto disc, with much better production obviously, so I guess everything here has been re-mastered for the CD. The first demo "Bogowie Zapomnienia" gives us a look at what Arkona would some day be, and all the tracks appear to be unreleased. Although nothing here is as good as recent material, it's all fairly decent actually. Tracks 7-15 should be given a better look at though.

They are in fact, all tracks (well, not except for two instrumentals) from the band's excellent "Imperium" CD. Amazingly enough though, the music here is even better than on the CD, since the tracks come out sounding so much more raw. They're filled with better vocals, superior production that fits the music, and some nice distortion to make the riffs sound so much more like they should have. Everything here is still as heavy as hell, thick vocals and thick keyboards fill the entire demo, but it's the much more vicious production that gives the music a far superior feel. A running time of 65 minutes doesn't hurt either, but the silly band photos do. Quite good, especially if you liked the first CD as I did.

I think it should be noted that the song "Only True Belief" (some very long Polish title on "Imperium") is one of the greatest modern black metal songs ever witnessed by myself. It's heaviness is second to none, and that track alone is this (much rawer compared to the LP recording) format is worth the price of the disc alone.

© 1997 brand