Vlad Tepes Demo 2 Comes in a standard jewel CD case with a 4 pages booklet
Recorded in Brest - November 1994 on Fostex 4 tracks recorder except Fall/Fallen recorded in Paris - April 1995
Wlad : Guitars/drums/vocals
Vorlok : Bass/backing vocals
Norway was not the only country that was experiencing a rise in black metal due to the second-wave in the early 1990's. There were plenty of other bands from various countries putting out quality material. One of these countries in particular was France. Bands like Mütiilation, Black Murder, Belkètre, Torgeist, and this band, Vlad Tepes, along with the dark ambient side projects such as Aäkon Këëtrëh and Moëvöt, put out some of the harshest and most raw black metal recordings in history. The Les Légions Noires (Black Legions) was the name given to this group of highly obscure cult bands. Original releases from these bands can sometimes be found on sites such as eBay for thousands of dollars. Vlad Tepes is somewhat of an oddity within the LLN to me because while they still sounded very raw, they used much better production values than a lot of the other bands. Don't get me wrong, the production of this demo, "Celtic Poetry", is still awful. But hey, that's all for the atmosphere!
The guitars are the focal point of this demo. They are raw, unrelenting, and fuzzy as hell. They are also quite melodic. This dark and melodic riffing is the most rewarding aspect of listening to "Celtic Poetry". The first song is the main event of the album. "Drink the Poetry of the Celtic Disciple" is a 13 minute epic that contains some of the most melodic guitar work on the entire demo. The tremolo riff that we hear quite a few times during this song is easily the most recognizable riff in Vlad Tepes' discography. It's also very catchy and contains some pretty cool guitar solos, and even an injection of folk influence. A lot goes on throughout this song, and it may be hard to hear for some people because of its messy production. Still, this is the longest song on the demo and actually makes up half the entire runtime. A lot of punk influence is used throughout these songs, probably most notably in "Under the Carpathian Yoke".
Like I said previously, this production is pretty bad. It sounds like someone took an old cell phone into a cave and recorded everything in a live setting. The drums sound laughable at times, especially in "Under the Carpathian Yoke". The snare is full of reverb and sounds like cardboard. This is an example of an instrument suffering because of the production. That being said, this is still a solid demo and definitely a classic within the LLN. If you want to check the LLN out, I would advise beginning with this, or perhaps Mütiilation's "Hail Satanas We Are the Black Legions" EP, as that is probably the cleanest release in terms of production.
Sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qF3XgGNUVY
