Circle of Ouroborus - Celebration of Nothingness (2009, demo)

1. Hole In The Sky                3:50
2. Monologue For Destiny               3:50
3. Harmony Celebration    4:43

Total playing time- 12:46

Even on the fringes of the black metal scene, where tapes with photocopied covers grow wild and untainted by mainstream customs, there are people that are weirded out by Circle of Ouroborus. For such an oddly green audience, this release would probably be the best introduction to the band; besides the trademark barely conscious vocalist, the music is barely recognizable as the mystical woodlands whimsy as is their custom. Hell, if I can correctly interpret the fucking cypher that is the lo-fi production, there are blast beats in the last song, earning them more black metal points than they usually do. Not much originality on the whole however, but it remains a breath of fresh air for versed CoO listeners.

Unfortunately, the tape was given only to friends with a written personal dedication for each copy, so unless you're in their circle of friends or are mentally insane/rich enough to buy it for $200 fucking dollars or whatever, the tape will be forever out of your grasp. Which is fine, really, because you can buy lots of better CoO releases that won't be paramount to buying someone else's trophy with an "I miss u" note attached.

What a shit friend.. I should have gotten that tape.

Also, if you think Taake used the mouth-harp effectively (you don't), the last song on the tape will showcase a properly utilized mouth-harp in black metal. Write down notes, fellow disciples.

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My CoO parody band will be named Circle of Friends.

Emaciator - Defeat C35 (2009)

1. In A Past Life           17:37 
2. Righting Wrongs      16:57

Total playing time-       34:34

To me, this tape first sounded like shit I could knock up in Fruity Loops in a few hours. The way the synths fluctuate as they drone reminds me of my own late night FL fuckeries, and I still bet this stuff is made digitally, but these are entirely superficial flaws and don't really invalidate the positive aspects of it; there is a somewhat unique and sullen spirit within, which is clouded by a haze of distortion and exemplified by actual melodies fighting for their dear lives for the chance to breathe. The melodies are sparse, desolate yet often peaceful, but always end up being dragged down into the depths and drowned. Hence, Defeat.

link dead
Bandcamp (with higher resolution audio files for only 5$)
Artist Bandcamp

Dødsengel - Arkaik (2010, EP)

1. Para Nous 15:40

2. Deus Sol Invictus 18:50 

Total playing time- 33:30

More weirdo black metal with weirdo, pseudo-melodic vocals. Seeing as I haven't explored this band much beyond this release and a few songs online, I can't say with certainty that this isn't at all exemplary of what they've done, but listening to this stuff back to back with other material reveals a pretty big contrast; There are almost no blast beats, it's not as malignant (at least not in the same way), there's more unrestrained vocal-fuckery, almost surf-rock sounding guitars and more weirdness in general. Think the Norweigan black metal sound made as a practical joke by entirely competent musician who couldn't care less about pleasing an audience. Not to say that there is no darkness, but its more likely to be found in interludes than the actual main course. Thus, this is essentially the worst introduction to Dødsengel possible, and I found myself not being very impressed with this band until I grew accustomed to the sounds within and heard their other shit (Imperator in particular). But grew it did. And it was nice. Not "bid 20€ on ebay for the totally limited to 300 copies tape supposedly never to be re-released" nice, but nice nontheless.

The only rip I ever found was 128kbps, but I found myself not really noticing until deciding to upload it. So yeah, thanks a lot Circle of Ouroborus, I've lost my ability to differentiate between shitty mp3 rips and lo-fi murk thanks to you.

If you have better rips, give me it guyse, but I think I shall remain content in enjoying this shitty rip in the meantime..

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"framúrskarandi eins og alltaf bróður. . Ave!" This is a lesson. Do not attempt to try to praise artists using mangled google-translate Icelandic.

Circle of Ouroborus - Night Radiance (2007, demo)

1.         Stained By Tar         04:20    

2.         Seed of Despair       05:20    

3.         From the Ashes of a Liar   04:23   

4.         Betrayed Landscapes         03:39    

5.         Transparent 05:15    

Total playing time - 22:57    

This here might very well be the darkest and murkiest Circle of Ouroborus release yet. It strays quite far from their usual whimsy, with only the last song serving as a faint reminder of what sunlight even feels like; the rest first drags us into cellar corners of extracted, lethargic bitterness and then picks up as if suddenly aware of the coming dawn, still covered with murk-residue.

Everyone else but seasoned CoO users is probably better off leaving this alone.

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.. or just let it nip you

Psyclones ‎- Cult Leader Gang-Raped By Disciples (1985)

1		Cult Leader Gang-Raped By Disciples / C'Mon Down 09:57
2		Bigger And Better 04:07
3		Look At My Cut 04:15
4		On You 03:17
5		Whatcha Doin' Tonight ? 03:47
6		Peer Party 00:54
7		We Don't Want To Live Here Anymore 01:17
8		Rejection / He Who Falls 11:04
9		The Shower Song 03:54
10		Mickey Rat Macdonald 08:47
11		Triumph Of The Will 03:26
12		Anarchy 4 U / Zoo Pigs 1234 !!!! 03:14

I admit, I approached this release for the most part because I have a thing for old, lo-fi industrial music aesthetics rather than complete appreciation for the sounds within. Despite the dumbass song titles, I expected the sounds to conform to the harsh mercilessness the title and cover conjured within me rather than what the whimsical song titles seemed to imply. Turns out that it's quite clearly made by kids just taking the piss to pass the time, who still possessed the ambition to actually publicly release it (on their own label that once released music by fucking Vidna Obmana, of all people). A really thin drum machine provides the rhythm (when present), while the guitars and bass play whatever the fuck they came up with first. Sometimes they play in time.

The industrial element mostly comes in with the occasional synth intrusion and weird vocal effects, but otherwise isn't at all dominating, as if it was accidental. However, the highlight would no doubt be the lyrics; Culled from the deranged imagination of 80's teens most probably on the spot, with each rhyme and oddly lucid defamation ("I'd like to squeeze you, but you're too full of shit") they go further from the subject matter set in the beginning, culminating in bullshit lyrics like these:

"Greg's gonna get himself a beer.
Greg's gonna get himself a beer
Greg's gonna get himself a beer
Greg's gonna get himself a beer
Greg won't you come in here
Greg won't you come in here
Greg won't you come in here
Greg won't you come in here, he's got his beer
I Cut my penis.
What?
I cut my penis.
What!?
I cut my penis, I hope you don't mind (?)
WHAT"

Instead of being threatening or somehow insidious as one might expect of a tape that shares imagery with more modern variant of PE/Harsh Noise/Industrial music, it's actually rather jovial and inviting in a way. It's a temporal window into the state of mind of teenagers (I assume) absolutely bursting with creativity but without anything in particular to express. Myself associating with once having had a similarly juvenile mindset myself.. this probably serves as a memory of simpler times for the makers behind it. Whether this window is something passer-by's would want to peek into at all depends on ones individual voyeurism, level (maturity?) of humor and tolerance of abject inanity, because truly, this is dumb as hell. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, really.

link dead
observe; the most half-assed call to revolution
this youtuber rigged the download link for me, so, dno, go give him/her/it a hug or something.

Urfaust/Circle of Ouroborus - Auerauege Raa Verduistering (2006, split)

1.	Urfaust - Verächtung wird einen Messertragenden Schatten	02:42
2.	Urfaust - Der Halbtoten Dichters Schein-Existenz	05:13
3.	Urfaust - Zur Winter-Wanderschaft Verflucht	06:44
4.	Urfaust - Dämmert, Gelähmt Und Mit Scheinbar Erloschenem Geist	10:32
5.	Circle of Ouroborus - Dream of Death	04:33
6.	Circle of Ouroborus - Mouldering Leaves	03:53
7.	Circle of Ouroborus - Dimicatio	03:11
8.	Circle of Ouroborus - Eyes of the Flames	03:00
9.	Circle of Ouroborus - Congregation of Sorrow	04:09
10.	Circle of Ouroborus - In the Forest of the Horned God	02:57

Total playing time- 46:54

Oh wowzers, these two bands are like soulmates or whatever. Both are duets that play weirdo black metal shit with weirdo clean vocals, the only difference being that the other band has a vocalist that sounds considerably more inebriated than the other and makes use of toasters to record their music

Roughly half of Urfaust's songs are ambient pieces, both of which have been curiously left off their compilation "Ritual Music for the True Clochard", and I guess that is because Urfaust fans are plebeian morons who can't enjoy music without a steady beat or vocals, or something? Well, granted, the second ambient piece "Zur Winter-Wanderschaft Verflucht" breaks their part of the split way the fuck up with its sparsity and horror movie soundtrack discordance without bridging the driving bitterness of "Der Halbtoten Dichters Schein-Existenz" and almost incessant melancholy of "Dämmert, Gelähmt Und Mit Scheinbar Erloschenem Geist" very well, so it might very well have been better left as the last track of their side or just omitted altogether. Especially considering more than half of track 4 is actually ambient music as well, so that makes Urfaust's side a turkey with alot of filling. The first song, however, is basically just Urfaust doing Urfaust with synths instead of guitars, such as they would do on their "Drei Rituale jenseits des Kosmos" EP. It actually serves as a much better expression of the inherent ghastliness of their black metal pieces than the horror movie soundtrack stuff.

Circle of Ouroborus work as a pretty weird contrast with Urfaust, since while the latter is kind of like a decrepit vessel set in its course of conveying immaterial torture of spirits beset with regrets, CoO are more like some immortal idiot savant, possessing simple but eternal wisdom that it has gathered in it's reclusive wanderings around the forests of the world, when it's not playing pranks on human folks of which it otherwise cares nothing about. Translating this amorphization of their music into actual description of it, CoO are, as ever, charming in their wonkyness. Repeated listenings reveal that underneath their deceptive simplicity are legitimately well put together songs that, unlike Urfaust does here, aren't padded out with inappropriate atmospheres and fillers. There are some acoustic pieces that actually bridge the rest of the songs incredibly well, and the pseudo-melodic vocals are not only appropriate to the music once you get used to them, they are necessary. So are the lo-fi recording techniques. So is everything. They do everything right.

I set out to write this review liking the Urfaust side better, because at least half of their music here is fucking great, but I then realized that CoO is more well rounded. Sometimes the idiot savant just knows better.

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urfustusurutrus listen
circlop oopf oruiroborrss listen 

Circle of Ouroborus - Introitus (2004, demo)

1.            Via Aestas          (03:52)    

2.            Dawn of the Void            (04:45)    

3.            Circle of One     (05:50)    

4.            Timbre Noir       (01:27)    

5.            Luciferian Will   (05:46)    

6.            Under the Juniper          (03:20)    

7.            Dimension Grotesque  (03:43)    

Total time- 28:43

First release ever by these guys. Possesses a much more malignant feeling than the later, almost giddy CoO stuff would, and doesn't contain much of the elements that would actually make them as great as they are, but it's an interesting part of their history nontheless. Some of the stuff is legitimately catchy as well, and I'd be willing to bet my cat and wages for this month that the chorus of Via Aestas will breach the surface of your memory continuum on occasion after a only few listens for years to come.

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taste the 'tube first if you are afraid and uneasy

(I should probably tell you that my cat is dying and my wages are shit)