Medieval Demon ‎"Demonolatria" CD

Now Escafismo Records re-release this Hellenic black metal masterpiece on Cd limited to 500 copies with the original artwork!

So, here I am reviewing Medieval Demon. First off I have to state that my acquintance with Medieval's Demon members won't affect my review. Medieval Demon was formed in 1993. They lived the explosion of black metal in Greece at the early 90s. They were formed at the same time with bands like Bethor and Zephyrous (they were townmates).
Highly associated with the Athenean scene and the aforementioned bands they released two demos and a split Cd in the period of 1993-1994. They even had some songs in various compilations of Greek metal magazines and zines of the time. In other words, a lot of people expected their debut effort released by Unisound Records (the same label that released Rotting Christ's Non Serviam).
What we have here is atmospheric black metal. The music has a lot of keyboards but they do not overpower the guitars mostly because they try to keep guitars and keys seperated. In other words, when the guitar plays the keyboards are minimal. That technique enhances the music and makes the overal output of the album more diverse.
The album can be divised in two parts. The atmospheric songs which are keyboard-laden and the actual black metal tracks which are guitar-driven.
Tracks like Under The Twilight, Queen Of Sorrow, Leudness In The Dark, Warrior's Anthem, Beyond The Clouds and Melancholy fall under the first category. From these tracks Queen Of Sorrow, Melancholy and Warrior's Anthem (the last one in a lesser degree) are the ones that stand out (with Under The Twilight being an intro played with a hammond organ and Leudness In The Dark and Beyond The Clouds being two ambient intervals). Queen Of Sorrow, Melancholy and Warrior's Anthem standout for the atmosphere that is created by Nick's violin. All these keyboard-laden pieces are arranged and played by Moonstruck. Queen Of Sorrow is a sorrowful, agonizing piece (a general stand-out of the album). Musically, Queen Of Sorrow is a pure symphonic piece whereas Melancholy has a pretty folky tune that serves perfectly as the album's ending.
All the other tracks fall under the second category. In this pieces the actual black metal face of Medieval Demon is shown. The pace ranges from mid to high tempo depending on the song. Spirits Of The Dead, Doomsday, No Flesh Shall Be Sharped are mid tempo songs whilst Dark Widow, Fields Of Tears and Demonolatria are fast tempo songs. The Rise Of The Moon falls somewhere inbetween with fast and mid tempo parts.
The standout tracks of this category are the mid-tempo ones (namely Spirits Of The Dead, Doomsday and No Flesh Shall Be Sharped. The Rise Of The Moon has its moments too.
Crimson Embrace's vocals are nice and they fit the music. They do not dominate the music though as they are mainly left in the background. The guitars are nice but they are not very memorable and that's surely a drawback of Medieval Demon's music. The bass is audible in tracks like Dark Widow, Demonolatria and Fields Of Tears. The drummer does a very good job too.
The highlight of the music is Moonstruck's keyboards. They manage to create an incredible romantic atmosphere (you can almost dine to Queen Of Sorrow and Melancholy).
Now Medieval Demon are sadly defunct. This album will be their heritage in the scene. It was a decent job. If you can ever find it, get it. You won't waste your money especially if you are a fan of the atmospheric sound.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...