Winged ‎"Blasphemies From The Arcane Past" CD

Tracks 1-4 taken from "Rehearsal demo 1992".
Tracks 5-7 taken from "Oath of Blood" demo (1993).
Tracks 8-11 taken from "A Voice Beyond the Grave" demo (1996).

All music and lyrics written by Fabio "War" Lipera
Except lyric of "Antichrist's revelation" by Fullmoon. Limited to 1000 copies.

All tracks are extracted from the original demo tapes
No re-mastering or sound alterations. Issued in a standard jewel case with transparent tray with 8-page booklet.

Now here we got something really obscure. Winged are an Italian black metal outfit with a few death metal undertones. I am not sure if they still exist, but in 2020 The Ritual Productions released their compilation “Blasphemies from the Arcane Past” on CD. And what can I say? The titled is perfectly fitting, as diving into this music feels more like exploring some kind of ancient ruins and rotten caverns and discover grotesque beings than listening to a product of modern times.
When this had been recorded in the early 90s most bands lacked proper recording equipment or funds to record in high-end studios. This low-budget, sometimes DIY recordings would end up serving as hallmarks of the genre’s sound. A mythos surrounding why its bands continued to take the lo-fi road began to grow. The material collected here has a very strong retro feeling, not only because of the sound, but also the simplicity of the riffs and the monotony of the patterns, the growly vocals etc.
Sometimes it is hard to say if there are even guitars or if whatever you believe might be the riffs are just some other noise, overlaid with tons of distortion. However, this adds to the overall fascination, as this is fast, morbid, cold and nostalgic music, with a very unique atmosphere. Psychotic keyboard samples help underlining this weird feelings, as do abrupt endings of certain songs. You can clearly see that this has been recorded live, just one take and off we go.
This compilation will surely find some love among the absolute purists. To be honest I am not that much into this kind of lo-fi demo stuff, but I have to admit that “Blasphemies from the Arcane Past” absolutely fascinates me. There is something surreal and I feel like being transported 25 years back in time, which brings back memories of sitting around a campfire somewhere in the woods with friends, drinking a few beers and checking out whatever metal CD or tape one of us has managed to discover. Beside that this is a really cool addition to the collection, so go on and check Winged out in case you are not familiar with them

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