Dark Funeral "In The Sign..." Cassette

Compilation album featuring 4 songs from the legendary 1994 self titled debut EP, plus two BATHORY covers recorded in 1996, and 3 live tracks from 2003.

MC limited to 350 black tapes, 4 panel J-card.

Back in 1994, the underground spat out the debut EP of Dark Funeral. Nobody knew how great this band will get, but one thing was for sure: this first release indicated the huge potential of the unholy creatures from Sweden. Coming out of the twilight, the band performed four pieces of pure black metal. Neither the song structures nor the riffs and lines offered surprising elements in abundance. Yet it became clear in a matter of minutes that Dark Funeral had a good grasp for the moods and mechanisms of the dark sub genre.
Already the fittingly titled opener invites the listener on a trip into the dark. "Open the Gates" is based on intensive guitars and straightforwardly hammering drums. The necessary amount of tempo changes and a gloomy break show up as well. Some catchy parts, inter alia the demonic chorus, illustrate the compositional talent of the guys. From today's perspective, this song (and the further tracks as well) does not feature unique facets, but we may not forget that the second wave of black metal was still in its infancy. 1994 was the year of "Transylvanian Hunger", "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" and "Hvis lyset tar oss". These groundbreaking albums were, of course, not the first works of the revitalized genre. Nevertheless, Dark Funeral joined the movement at an early stage...
...and they were full of energy. "Shadows Over Transylvania" impresses with its smooth yet very powerful lines. The lyrics are crammed with buzzwords like cold moon, blood red skies, wolves, ancient castle and so on, but the music itself avoids any form of simple-mindedness. Blast beats driven sequences are successfully combined with fast verses and a few number of redirecting breaks. Not to mention the slightly weird melody line at the end. The remaining tracks do not pale beside "Open the Gates" and "Shadows Over Transylvania". They follow more or less the same musical concept. Thus, it is a matter of taste which song one likes most. I tend to the two openers, but all songs spread an evil flair and benefit from the professional, dark and firm production.
Taking all these details into account, Dark Funeral had released a promising debut. Pure back metal was refined with a tiny pinch of death metal (a guitar line of the closer greets the community of the Grim Reaper) and the result carried a clear signature which is still present in their recent album. A clear position is (almost) always a good thing. In this context, Dark Funeral did and do not need to have a bad conscience.

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