Erg Noor
Revelation (MP3 Only Demo) 2004 None
Before I start writing this review I want you to ask yourself if you like epic and beautiful guitar work. If you do then go here: http://www.ergnoor.de. This demo and Erg Noors second one are both available there for free download. If you are into beautiful music then it's almost guaranteed that you'll like this. The name Erg Noor is apparently Dutch for "Terribly Norwegian". I don't think the name fits the band very well as it's neither terrible nor has it any musical associations with scandinavian culture (edit: It turns out that the name actually refers to a person from the book "Andromeda Nebula")There are the occasional double bass drumming and some growls present, but most of the time the music is rather calm, epic and beautiful. The band also uses a church organ and aucoustic guitars to fill out the music and create a very rich sound. But most important is the stunningly beautiful guitar work which just keeps on taking the music to ever greater levels of epicness, far beyond the point where the hair rises on your arms. This is one of those CDs that really captivates the listener and especially those of us who enjoy playing air guitar. The secret might lie in the relatively simple riffage which focuses on creating a perfect aura rather than technical prowess. That and the fact that the rich sound backs it up very nicely. I also think that the music gets even more interesting because the band doesn't sound like any other melodic death/doom bands, and then especially not like My Dying Bride. The closest one would perhaps have to be Majesty or Ningizzia as they both play very epic doom/death as well. By now the mp3's should have been downloaded. I know they can be a select taste in one way, but in another way these guys have a sound that fans of all kinds of doom will like. What can I say? This has to be last year's most promising new band.	1. Prologue 2. Mirror 3. Revelation 4. Epilogue Approx. 48 minutes
Reviewed by: Arnstein H. Pettersen
Voices Of Earth (MP3 Only Demo) 2004 None
The name of this demo seems to have a far more interesting meaning than most release titles. At least it reminds me of two of history's most important 12"s. They are called 'The Golden Records'. The reason for their importance is the fact that they were attached as time capsules to the spacecrafts Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, who have recently passed Pluto and have left our solar system. 'The Golden Records' are meant as a communication to extraterrestrials about life here on Earth. More about this here. The reason that 'Voices Of Earth' reminds me of 'The Golden Records' is the fact that both records are time capsules meant to portray Earth. There is a major difference though. While 'The Golden Records' contains greetings in 55 languages, clips of birdsongs, some music (amongst them an Elvis song) and similar, 'Voices Of Earth' portray a very different truth about this world. There are a lot of different speeches to be heard amongst the music. A lot of the speeches I don't recognise, but I know I heard both Nixon and Hitler amongst them. Clearly this is a portrayal of the negative side of humanity. But the music isn't all speeches. In fact the epic and beautiful riffage which was heard on the previous demo, 'Revelation', is constantly present in the same breathtaking style. There are also vocals, ranging from clean but dark male vocals to standard death metal growls. And of course all of this is portrayed in doom metal pace. I continue to be amazed by this band. I hope they will continue to be as inventive as they have been on this demo, which can by the way be downloaded for free here. This demo might be an acquired taste, but I still think that this would be interesting music for most melodic doomsters. Both for those from Earth and beyond.	1. The Dream 2. Human 3. This World Of Hate 4. The End Of Dream 5. Your World Approx. 49 minutes
Reviewed by: Arnstein H. Pettersen