Cintecele Diavolui - The Devil's Songs (10")

This is probably one of the more bizarre things that I have bought recently. Cintecele Diavolui is an old alias / side project that was used by Mortiis in the mid/late 90s when he was deep into making mainly dark ambient synth and keyboard based music, or as he called it - Dark Dungeon Music. Cintecele Diavolui is a pretty cool name in my opinion. The phrase means "The Devil's Songs" in Romanian, which is also, rather coincidentally, the name of this 10" mini-album. The five tracks here are spooky, and a little cooky; dark and suspenseful writing portrayed through the slightly cheesy classic-horror medium of synthetic organ sounds. The record claims that the music here isn't performed by Mortiis as such, but by an old vampire called Vukodlak, who Mortiis "brought to life" for this release. Make of that what you will.

Musically, it is a charming yet cheap sounding record. It depends on entirely how you approach listening to the thing, and the same goes for all of Mortiis' 'Era 1' output; if you can get past the fact that this sounds like it has been composed using the shittiest of the shit MIDI keyboard sounds in existence, then you will probably really enjoy it. These quirky, bargain-basement instrumentations can be over-looked on sprawling works such as Født Til Å Herske, Keiser Av En Dimensjon Ukjent and Ånden Som Gjorde Opprør, but The Devil's Songs suffers with the same ailment as The Crypt Of The Wizard's material; once the composition is broken down into smaller tracks with more active instrumentation you can't really ignore the shoddiness of the equipment used. It feels like music on a really old video game.

I suppose that the tackiness to the sound really adds to the overall atmosphere, but if you are familiar with the early Mortiis works listed above, please do not expect Cintecele Diavolui to possess the same haunting and depthless darkness. All in all, The Devil's Songs isn't a bad record in any way, the writing is fantastic, it's just that the method of delivery used could have been more inventive. If you hated The Crypt Of The Wizard era Mortiis, then it's a safe bet you won't like this. Considering this isn't a canon Mortiis release and was marketed as an entirely different project of "vampire music", it would have been super, super awesome if this was played on a real church organ or something, for extra spooky and spine-chilling effect. But, it is what it is.

This was self-released by Mortiis back in the day, using his Dark Dungeon Music label. I would say that this is probably for fanatic-level fans only. Like I said, if you're not too fussed on the Era 1 stuff then I wouldn't bother checking this out. Otherwise, tuck in! *Does insane, Italian-accented vampire laugh*

Mortiis - The Song Of A Long Forgotten Ghost

Out of all the early Mortiis ambient keyboard pieces, The Song Of A Long Forgotten Ghost is probably the one that I am least familiar with, which is a crying shame because it's a truly beautiful piece of music. Sometimes I wish I had the patience to put something like this together but I have to accept that I just can't play the piano, organ, synth or what-have-you without any practice or training haha

Early Mortiis conjures images of lands lost and shrouded in mystery and intrigue; of misty fjords and leaden skies; crumbling castles and times gone by. Yeah. My favourite way to jam early Mortiis when I was younger was to import all of his Era 1 stuff into the sound files for games such as TES III: Morrowind and the likes, and have them as my soundtrack for exploring fantastical worlds. Some of my most affectionate memories of the times spent in those games stem from extremely moving scores such as this. Sad? Yes. Nerdy? Yes. But, it was fucking awesome. I don't normally get that nerdy, but I enjoyed it immensely.

This impossible-to-find gem has been re-released on a series of formats, most notably vinyl and CD, or even a CD-book in a variety of pretty colours. You can even pick up some signed by Mortiis direct from the man himself if you've got a few extra quid spare. It's artists like Mortiis that make me sad to be parting ways with my physical record collection.

Anyways, I implore you listen to the original demo tape recording over any reissue you may come across - the sound here is absolutely amazing; including tape wobbles and treble heavy sound. It's not perfect, but it's so goddamn amazing. Lose yourself in another world!

Mortiis - The Grudge

Whilst this is entirely on the other end of the industrial metal spectrum that I prefer not to get too close to, The Grudge was one of favourite records as a teenager. Over the last few years I have learned that there is a lot more to industrial than crappy guitars layered with crappy dance music and ripping off old Nine Inch Nails tracks, but that's another story. Mortiis' first Era 3 release was a puzzling mix of awkward techno and fuzzy metal, not a hundred million miles away from The Smell Of Rain, but so far removed from any of his Era 1 music you'd swear it was a totally different musical genius at the helm. Nope. Mortiis is one of those artists that has evolved in sheer leaps over the last 20 years.

I like The Grudge, don't get me wrong, but compared to The Smell Of Rain before it, it pales in comparison. The Smell Of Rain had such a distinct and wonderful sound, but The Grudge, whilst it has it's moments of sheer brilliance, is for the most part clumsy, badly mixed and lacking direction. It is equal parts amazing and awful. The over-all vibe is much more angsty and rougher around the edges (it's almost like this album should have been made first, and The Smell Of Rain should be it's more focused and chilled-out follow up) but some of my favourite Mortiis songs are on here. Opener "Broken Skin" sounds like it's been mixed by a 4 year old, but that doesn't stop it being one of the greatest Mortiis songs, writing wise. "The Grudge" is the song that got me hooked into this album with it's constant rotation on Scuzz TV; a clanking dancey nightmare that unfolds into some serious industrial metal heaviness.

 

The longest track here, "The Worst In Me" is a brooding nightmare of riffs and synths, and the first few minutes of "The Loneliest Thing" is by far the best shit on this record; it starts with a cool, semi-acoustic opening with resonant chords fighting over fluttering hi-hats, leading into some heavy drumming and haunting vocal performances. Sheer, sheer brilliance. Closing track "Asthma", is a quick nod back to the days of old, fading the record out with a couple of minutes of nothing more than meandering, hollow ambience. Bliss.

I originally bought this on CD with my first ever paycheck back in 2005 (who can forget what they bought with their first paycheck?). I got the "Mortiis pack" off Earache Records, which was the entire Mortiis-on-Earache discography and a crappy Earache t-shirt, but they made a mistake and sent me two copies of The Grudge (one being the special edition) instead of a copy of The Stargate, and I had to send it back for a swap. In hindsight, I probably should have said it was missing, flogged it, and got a free copy of The Stargate. Oh well. Recently the label have been selling these old vinyl copies of The Grudge off for £7 including postage, so I couldn't resist picking one up. I was hoping for the bright purple but I got the clear.

Check out "The Loneliest Thing" below; the first few minutes are just beautiful.

Mortiis - Decadent & Desperate

I got these two when they were around (I think) 70p each on the Earache store. An utter bargain! Every now and then they put the shit that I assume wasn't selling down to some retarded low price. Once I went on there and they had Adema 7"s for 10p each. I was almost tempted to make a large purchase and then build a fire out of Adema singles. That would have been a good day! Too bad I snoozed on that opportunity; said Adema records are now an extortionate 99p each. Life is not fair.

Anyway, onto the music. Decadent & Desperate is not one of the highlights in the Mortiis cannon if you ask me, but I got these anyway because I do intend to get all of his vinyl one day, even the horrendously over-priced era 1 ambient stuff. One 7" contains a pretty uneventful live recording and the other a remix of "Way Too Wicked", which is a fairly cool song. The wax is all black but limited (?) to 2000 copies, and I'm guessing there is a 1000 green and 1000 brown, but I could be wrong. 

Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse

This is the slipcase CD version of the 1994 classic black metal record. I've never liked Emperor if I'm honest, even though I should. The giant black metal phase of my life has for the most part passed and I doubt I will ever get into them. I always wanted Emperor to be good but every time I spun this disc I found it insanely hard to listen to. I guess it's the production or something; bad production is a given in black metal but what we have here is nothing but drums and echoing.

Song wise, everything falls together nicely. It's raw, yet at the same time elegant and majestic. But I just can't get passed that wall of bins, man! I feel like the ash man has driven his truck down a wind tunnel. Jesus! Essential, but fairly useless, as far as I'm concerned. Out on Candlelight Records. 

Mortiis - The Grudge (Single Edit)

 

I wasn't entirely fussed on Mortiis' much more metal approach in 2004 but there are some cracking tunes on The Grudge, including the title track, packaged here wittled down to a club-size bite. I can't blame Earache for wanting in on the electro-goth club scene audience that Mortiis so obviously appeals to, but the single edit is, in all honesty, fucking pointless. It takes a great song and makes it less great simply but cutting parts out of it. The Grudge as a song doesn't quite fall awkwardly into horrible chugging like some tracks off the album but simply showcases a rougher (and ALOT angrier) side to Mortiis whilst retaining the excellent synth and bass sound of earlier efforts.

On side B (or should I say AA) is "Decadent and Desperate", the big Mortiis single (in my opinion). Not quite sure why this is here if it was later repressed as a single (twice) in it's own right? Confusing move, Earache, I gotta be honest. "Decadent.." is muddy, riddled with angst only seen the ultra-bad part of nu-metal and is terribly mixed. It is far cry from anything off Smell of Rain. Mortiis is an excellent musician, not to mention performer, but this song is just hands down balls. Ironically, it was his best known song in the circles I hung around in at high school. People dug this song but shunned early Mortiis and even the album this was off! Moron fucking goths! Ha ha!

Mortiis - The Smell of Rain

Y'know what, I don't know anyone who fucking likes Mortiis. Either he really isn't appreciated at all, or I am just surrounded by people who do not understand his music. I'm pretty certain it is the latter. When I was in school a lot of the goth kids started liking Mortiis when The Grudge came out, and this pissed me off if anything, because I'd been chastised for listening to Mortiis for years, and now all of a sudden it was cool. Well, maybe cool wasn't the right word, but if you told me I would go to see Mortiis live with four other people I would have told you to fuck off. Four people! Jesus fucking Christ!

In 2012, and therefore able to view the Mortiis canon in it's entirety, one can appreciate the odd space in time that The Smell of Rain occupies. Lodged awkwardly in the early 00s, sandwiched between Mortiis' often questionable "dark dungeon" synth outputs and his later, more industrial and metal influenced work, The Smell of Rain is an enigma unto itself, somehow combining elements of past and future Mortiis sounds and rolling into one fuck off ball of puzzling goth-disco. Yes. That just about sums it up.

I'm sure most peoples knowledge of this record begins and ends with the nauseating promo video for "Parasite God", a cracking track in it's own right, but this album is so much more! Bang your head to tunes such as "Mental Maelstrom"! Dance yourself silly to "Put a Hex on Me"! Sing along proudly to "Smell the Witch"! Cringe at Mortiis singing "Monolith"! What a journey! I'm sure that it is rather obvious I am being sarcastic here but I mean good. Whereas this record may not stand the test of time alongside the full spectrum of music created on the planet, The Smell of Rain remains elite within it's own possibly self-made sub genre of severe corniness and eye make up.

This pressing is actually very extravagant, considering Earache put it out. It is pressed on super heavy wax spinning at 45rpm, giving you the full audiophile experience you would never expect from Dig and co. Unfortunatley, my copy is marred by a sticker removal on the front cover, ripping off a chunk of artwork, which really sucks.

I have spent many hours of my early teenage life listening to this record, and I suggest that anyone with an open mind listen to it. Would I like it if I heard it for the first time right now, you ask? Well, if someone described it as Shpongle meets Nine Inch Nails at stereotypical 80s disco, I would jump at the chance to hear it. And so should you.