The classic releases from pre-Borknagar death metal band Molested will see re-issue on Dark Symphonies Records in their original form. The 2009 re-issues on Galgenstrang Produktionen and Ars Magna Recordings provoked criticism for their modern, compressed and loud sound that some felt reduced the clarity of the original.
Known for being a boutique label that re-issues classic metal releases on vinyl with collector-friendly exclusive packaging, Dark Symphonies Records and its imprint The Crypt have decided to issue the Molested re-releases as jewelcase CDs. These include bonus tracks on Stormvold and will be faithful to the original recordings. Dark Symphonies Records released the following statement:
DARK SYMPHONIES / THE CRYPT is honored to work with Borknagar mastermind Øystein G. Brun to reissue official stand alone CDs of the brutal, classic debut album “Blod Draum” and the classic EP “Stormvold” from the legendary Norse death metal act MOLESTED.
We are proud to announce that we are working directly with Øystein to obtain a wealth of material. “Blod Draum” will include the original film negative of the cover artwork for best visual presentation, unpublished band photos, lyrics and new liner notes. The CD will include the original 1995 studio recording, which was carefully mastered from the original DAT source as well a revised version of the album, which will be remixed by Øystein from the original multi-track studio tapes. This CD is designed after the original 1995 CD release, taking elements from the original layout with attention to detail, even down to the logo and typeface for a touch of nostalgia.
“Stormvold” will include the band’s “Stalk the Dead” and “Unborn Woods in Doom’ demos. Including the original cover artwork, unpublished band photos, lyrics, new liner notes and the original 1997 DAT tape for the Stormvold audio source and original analog tapes for the DEMO audio sources.
“Stormvold” will be presented as a metallic gold printed insert and will be designed after the original 1997 Effigy Productions release, taking elements from the original layout with attention to detail, even down to the logo and typeface for a touch of nostalgia.
No date has yet been announced for these re-issues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7C0ZU7eZ3w
Tags: dark symphonies records, death metal, molested, oystein g. brun
Blod-draum is a classic death metal album. A shame its remaster was so terrible, seriously one of the worsts I’ve heard.
Not only was the remaster terrible, that piece of shit of a reissue was pressed from 128-192 kbps mp3s.
I’ve been listening to the Blod-Draum reissue since it came out, and I have a hard time believing that. Before that album came out, I used the FLACs that the Dark Legions Archive put up years ago. Those were taken from the original CDs, and the second disc (which contained the original Blod-Draum mix) of the Ars Magna reissue sounded the same as the FLACs.
I’m not a huge fan of that reissue either, but I feel like you’re misrepresenting it when you accuse it of coming from such an inferior source.
Doesn’t matter whether you can hear the difference and I didn’t claim I noticed it while listening either.
This can be easily proved by ripping both cds (or playing them with something like foobar) and looking at their frequency spectrogram.
The fact that the difference might not be audible by most people, doesn’t make what those idiots did any less unacceptable.
Niiiiiiiiice. Great news; day made. THIS is how a rerelease should be done!
Why isn’t Blod Draum included in the archive?
Blod Draum is mentioned, unfavorably, in passing in the Stormvold review. No idea why. It’s a landmark last-wave death metal album up there with To the Depths… in terms of quality but probably not influence (unfortunately).
Blod-Draum is indeed a landmark album. People should listen to the recording with attention and little distraction. It’s a great example of how descriptive melody can be integrated into a pure Death Metal approach to structure, and is a wildly alternate interpretation to the styles that emerged, for better or for worse, out of Sweden in the early 90’s.
I haven’t heard anything that even sounded vaguely influenced by Molested. It sucks, because they had a really unique style. Maybe the retro-death crowd is just too lazy to do that much tremolo picking.
I think it has more to do with how obscure the melodic structure is. Many bands focus on achieving the overall sound (very low notes, blurred by tremolo, not accentuated but followed by the drums, shitloads of reverb) and call it a day. The real treasure in Blod Draum (as well as Onward to Golgotha and Effigy of the Forgotten) is the method of taking a melody into constantly unexpected but totally logical places. Modern bands simply did not pat close enough attention to those records and were mislead by the aesthetic. Occultists have been doing that shit for centuries; apply a distracting aesthetic to distract fools from the powerful knowledge that lay hidden within. Molested and the other bands I mentioned literally played occult death metal.
The closest thing I’ve heard is a band called Excoriate who are clearly attempting to be some sort of tribute act, even down to the cover art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN5g2K5Qo9M
It’s not even passable.
That was pretty damn bad. Fuck the huge reverb on the vocals, that’s not even an old-skewl thing, it’s just retarded.
Portal is the only band that comes to mind, though I don’t care for it.
Again, a band that never looked past the aesthetics (mixing, guitar tone, effects) and so couldn’t build from the actual technique used to create the music. I rather like Portal but their style of composition and their playing techniques differ vastly from anything Molested recorded.
Man those last re-issues really screwed up. Just reprint the originals! We don’t need the bonus tracks! They’re duplicates of what’s on the album, but the album tracks are better!
No, the demos sound completely different than the full-length and the EP. They really give a good look into a band moving from fairly standard Scandinavian Death-influenced stuff into new waters.
YES