FLEURETY - MIN TID SKAL KOMME (1995)

On a vinyl reissue from Peaceville that was just recently released. Originally released in 1995 on CD by Aesthetic Death Records and Misanthropy Records that at the time of 1995/96 released brilliant records by Burzum, Arcturus, Ved Buens Ende, In The Woods etc. just to name a few.

This is the the 2nd LP release of Min Tid Skall Komme. The first vinyl was released in 2008 that one has a bonus LP with the songs from their demo Black Snow (1993) and the 7" EP A Darker Shade Of Evil (1994) and is limited and numbered to 600 copies.

A real nice release but I really like that the Peaceville LP kept the original CD cover artwork unlike the 2008 one. There's been a bunch of different cover artworks for the reissued CD's if I'm not mistaken.

Min Tid Skal Komme was one of those records that would sit on the CD shelves in one of my local record stores for years. I had listened to it once but didn't get the greatness of this masterpiece right then and there.

With the concept of 5 songs in approx 45 min and tracks that were 12,5 min long it's kind of hard to get the right feeling in such an environment. With those bad headphones in at a commercial record store (not just for Metal) and for such a "complex avantgarde Black Metal" band as Fleurety one needs to be at a better space.

It might have been in 1996/97 I first heard/saw the Min Tid Skal Komme CD but maybe not until 1998/99 that I actually picked it up. Believe the store discounted the price to around 99 kronor which were a good price I thought.

My Black Metal taste had also evolved during those years especially with albums like the masterpiece La Masquerade Infernale (1997) by Arcturus. The brilliant Heart Of The Ages (1995) by Into The Woods... or another excellent one Written In Waters (1995) by Ved Buens Ende.

Fleurety had started playing 1991 in the small village Ytre Enebakk located southeast of Oslo.

The founding members were guitarist/bassist and also vocalist between 1991 to 94 Alexander Nordgaren (later live guitarist with Mayhem 1997-98) and drummer/keyboard player also current vocalist since 1994 Svein Egil Hatlevik (Strid ex. Dødheimsgard). Both were only 14 years at the time of 1991.

The first demo was released in 1993 had 3 songs and was called Black Snow although not a good name for any release it's not a bad demo. On that one Nordgaren called himself Varg and Hatlevik took the name Nebiros kind of funny because one doesn't exactly think of Fleurety with those names. The music goes from slow paced to straight forward Black Metal with a great instrumental song in the middle.

Already in 1994 they put out a first official EP release called A Darker Shade Of Evil. Both songs Profanations Beneath the Bleeding Stars also appeared on the debut demo. It's like the demo alright but nothing spectacular the vocals are hideous. Actually Alexander Nordgaren permanently damaged his vocal chords. I can hear why!

In 1995 the 1 song called Absence appeared on the 2 x CD  compilation Blackend: The Black Metal Compilation Volume 1 with already established bands like Emperor, Marduk, Mayhem, Satyricon, Samael etc.

Kind of funny how many bands got misspelled like Flevery but Fleurety wasn't the only ones we also got Impaled Nazarine, Unaminated and Ved Buensende.

The song Absence, the demo and the EP all appears as extra songs on the 2008 vinyl of Min Tid Skal Komme on Aesthetic Death Records. All except the demo on a Candlelight Records CD reissue from 2002.

Let's finally get into their debut album Min Tid Skal Komme. One can definitely hear that the guys had gotten inspiration from the excellent Ved Buens Ende demo from 1994 called Those Who Caress the Pale for this record. Even if their own song Absence was an indication on where they were going it's more evident on the album It's not like a copycat version of Ved Buens Ende I think Fleurety has their own sound on this record.

Also speaking of Ved Buens Ende both Carl-Michael Eide (bass) and Vicotnik (vocals) from that band (and a ton others) were recruited as live musician for Fleurety in 1994. I'm not sure how many gigs that combo played together?

I've only seen 2 songs over at YouTube where they do an alright live cover of the Mayhem classic Freezing Moon with Vicotnik on vocals. While on My Resurrection In Eternal Hate Alexander Nordgaren does the vocals.



Anyway I think that Min Tid Skal Komme was not promoted enough by Misanthropy Records I only remember ever read any interviews with Fleurety in fanzines.

Also just as many of their label mates like Ved Buens Ende and Into The Woods... ahead of their time. The music although rightly labeled Black Metal it got all sorts of influences but just saying it's avantgarde isn't enough. They use an additional female vocalist on the album which adds lots to the songs.

Can only say that you got to pick up a copy for yourself of this gem of an album.

What became of Fleurety after this one I'm not going to ever write about but lets just say it wasn't and isn't my cup of tea.

DISMEMBER - MASSIVE KILLING CAPACITY (1995)

Here on a 1st print vinyl released on Nuclear Blast in 1995. See my massive poster (approx 120 cm x 85 cm) included their 3-song MCD Casket Garden from 1995 for size comparison up in the right corner see picture further down the post. Really wished I had enough wall space to fit it somewhere in my apartment that's already have a bunch of Marduk and Funeral Mist posters among others.

The hard 3rd album is a thing in the Swedish Death Metal scene, according to me at least, or every record after Wolverine Blues (1993) by Entombed. 1995 was a weird year in the Death Metal scene the Black Metal scene however was still going steady upwards but in my book the Death scene wasn't the same after 1995. But we'll get to that.

The first time I heard anything from Massive Killing Capacity was when Headbanger's Ball did a great segment on the Dismember, Amorphis, Hypocrisy, Meshuggah & Benediction on the Nuclear Blast Tour in Stuttgart, Germany from the 10th of January in 1995. Of course I had it recorded on a VHS-cassette and watched it MANY times. Dismember performs the song Casket Garden and it sounded great so did Hypocrisy and Amorphis (a must see clip further down in the post). 

Dismember had released a 3-song MCD called Casket Garden in March of 1995 also made a video for the title track. It sounded VERY different from what they had done on their previous ones like on Like An Everflowing Stream (1991); the Pieces EP (1992) and Indecent And Obscene (1993).

Really liked the song and if I remember correctly Casket Garden was on some collection CD that came with a Swedish metal magazine that I was subscribed to at the time (still am).

It had a certain "grow" to it is the best way I can describe it and Matti Kärki's vocals had a different approach to the song then the growls of the earlier albums. Have always hated when people didn't hear the difference between the Dismember and Entombed sound it's like comparing Slayer with Metallica in my ears. But on the song Casket Garden I could hear that Dismember had been a somewhat inspired by the Wolverine Blues album.

Actually didn't buy the Casket Garden EP back in the day, got it now, but back then I thought EP's were to expensive. I rather just wait for the full album of course I made exceptions especially if they had many exclusive songs or if it was by a favorite band like Dissection, Marduk, Emperor etc.

I would like to mention before we get into Massive Killing Capacity that in 1995 when I was 15 years old I was still listening to everything from Marduk, Emperor, Slayer, Kreator, Unleashed, Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest etc. It wasn't until late 1995/early 1996 that everything had to be just Black Metal. What teenager do...

Anyway remember blind buying Massive Killing Capacity on release day and I FUCKING HATED IT... After the first song I Saw Them Die I thought well this can only get better, but then the next song Massive Killing Capacity sure it had some of those classic Dismember riffs but back then I thought it was worse then the opener.

On Frozen Fields I liked imminently, Crime Divine was a disaster and To The Bone was so fucking average about halfway into the album that I probably skipped over to the next one.

Wardead I actually liked even if this didn't sound like Dismember in my ears. Hallucigenia and Collection Of Blood both started alright but then I probably just skipped over them after a minute into the songs I wanted to hear Casket Garden to cleanse my ears with a good song.

The instrumental Nenia I thought had great parts in it sounded very much like the Metallica song Orion to me. But then the ending song... Life - Another Shape of Sorrow, yeah the title was kind of how I felt with this album. I was left feeling so cheated out of a great album, Dismember were after all one of my favorite bands at the time.

Remember being so disappointed on the whole album and cursed myself for not listening to the album at one of my local record stores before buying the damn thing. However being 15 years one had limited funds, I'll admit that I was spoiled enough to afford 3-5 CD's a month. But this must have been a month when I couldn't afford any more albums. So I "had" to listen to it because at least it was a new record that I spent money on it. 

So I skipped through all the "bad songs" that were many I thought back then. I had it on in the background while reading a magazine or doing whatever and didn't skip any songs. Actually the album started to grow on me I started to like more and more of the songs. It was still my least favorite Dismember album but at least I got my moneys worth in the end. Finally I really liked it and eventually thought it was an amazing album.

1995 was a weird year for many Death Metal bands. The North American ones like Death, Morbid Angel, Deicide etc. released brilliant classic records. While Swedish and other European bands released weak ones there's exceptions of course for instance At The Gates with their brilliant Slaughter Of The Soul album. 

In my opinion I don't think the Death Metal scene ever got the same after 1995 sure there were great "new" bands like Angelcorpse, Nile etc. but most of the timeless classic albums in the genre was released during or before 1995.

But back to Massive Killing Capacity I could understand if someone doesn't like this album because it's so different from their other 90's records. Give it another chance and give it time and you might just find the greatness that it really offers in the end. I would never have it on vinyl if I didn't think it was worth it.

Again sorry for the poor quality of my pictures I'll upgrade my iPhone 6S soon to something better.