Shadowcaster was my first solo-project, and it was NOT metal. I cannot stress this enough. There are NO guitars, no bass, no drums per se. The music is all created with synths and keyboards. I had 2 different ones that I bought in 1993 and began experimenting on. Besides being into metal since '84, around 1991 my friend Ron (Evil Eye) introduced me to a lot of killer 70's bands that I'd never really heard before: Klaus Schulze, Kitaro, Tonto's Expanding Head Band and Tangerine Dream. Their music was unique - atmospheric and created mostly with synths and keyboards. I channelled this same energy through black metal and came up with what at first were short creepy horror sounding pieces, like something from a horror soundtrack. And growled or spoken vocals over most songs telling stories of Ancient Mesopotamia, Meditation, Invocation, Summonings, contemplations and surreal musings. The 2 promo's are crude. All the songs are actually recorded live in one take. Me in Evil Eye's living room, on the floor, a keyboard on one side, a synth on the other, cords everywhere, a mic, effect pedals, and I did it all in one shot, improvising some parts and writing others. It's meant to sort of meander, weave, change and morph along like a dark trip into a tantric wilderness. Did I mention I did a lot of LSD back at the time too? So finally in March 1994 I recorded the debut promo "My Love Affair With Death And Melancholy". Short, but dark and brooding with one song having a very melancholy cloud over it. Strange and trippy. Not perfection. I did have lights off, candles lit, incense burning and I'm sure I was stoned. I printed up demo covers and sent flyers through the mail and sold quite a lot of them. Some liked it, others didn't. The whole demo is under 20 minutes long so if you don't like it it's not much to tolerate. Around the time I released this promo there were 2 or 3 other bands doing this same sort of general idea (synth music, or "dungeon synth" as I've heard some reference it) like Mortiis, Darkness Enshroud & Pazuzu.
"My Love Affair With Death And Melancholy" 1994 promo#1 (April)
1. My Summing of the Darkest Princess (Embrace Me) (3:23)
2. He Is Ever Melancholy (2:28)
3. Sumerian Symphony No. 1 (Inanna: The Lady of the Evening) (4:37)
4. Sumerian Symphony No. 2 (The Projection of My Thoughts) (4:36)
5. I Am Truly Free: The Blackness Within (4:26)
DOWNLOAD HERE
In the summer of 1994, in spare time, I took on a Herculean idea of making a 90 minute long promo. Long compositions with drawn out darkness and effects and morbidity. Also a lot of melancholy. Vocals are used as an effect a lot with some of the strangest trippiest sounds ever created. More dark and trippy than imagineable. This became the 2nd promo "To Gather My Thoughts Among The Sleeping Summer Spirits". Long titles, long songs, and all synths and keyboards and vocals that are growled or spoken and a lot of effects. In "When The Sun And The Light Have Vanished" the 'creatures of the night' that you hear are real, an actual recording I made at night with a mic in the woods. And Part One became the Intro for the 2nd Night Conquers Day CD. This demo is near 90 minutes long, so prepare to either fall asleep or be mesmerized in a trance. The girl on the cover is Stacia "The Succubus", I photographed her in Mt Hope Cemetery. After we did the pictures we went to leave and they had locked the gates to the cemetery because it was past dusk. I had to hop the wall and go across the street and call 911 for them to come let us out because I had to be at work. lol. And here I am a convicted gravestone thief - they locked me IN the graveyard., LMFAO!!!!! Anyways, prepare for some seriously dark and twisted stuff on this promo. It's experimental and also continues some Ancient Sumerian mythos revolving around Inanna's descent into the Underworld.
1. Journey Across The Vast Psychedelic Landscape To The Darkness Beyond (Hallucinations
With No Color) (34:29)
2. Comfort Amongst The Desecrated Graves (8:38)
3. Fearless And Surreal (15:45)
1st Movement: Pain's Chaos Creeps Into Me
2nd Movement: Hallucinations and Stimulations
3rd Movement: Prolonged Aftermath, Then Solitude
4. The Marches Of Madness (Battle Sigh) (9:03)
5. The Essence Of Tragedy (The Descent of Inanna - Part I) (8:16)
6. When The Sun And The Light Have Vanished (10:58)
Part One: The Triumphant Night Conquers The Day
Part Two: Hymn To The Nocturnal Creatures
7. Outro: Overtures (0:51)
The CD's......
By 1995 a Greek label was interested in signing Shadowcaster and releasing a CD. I had never been offered a CD deal before. At this point Buried Beneath were recording demos and I couldn't believe my solo-project attracted a label. I hastily said yes but Unisound Records took a year to get the CD out. They also did NOT use the cover and logo I sent them. They had some artist paint a gay castle and there's a boring logo I never saw til the CD's arrived. The picture meant to be the cover was eventually used as the cover for the 3rd Tearstained CD "Final Thoughts". I had to pay $400 for my own CD's when they shipped them to me. Also lots of typos. The debut CD, entitled "Abandonment", has 6 new songs and 3 songs from the promos (the last 3 songs). The new songs had more experimentation with actual composition, sometimes with good results and sometimes not. I was experimenting and learning to play at the same time. I'm a guitar player, drummer, bassist, all self-taught, and I was taking on keyboards in under 2 years of toying with them. But the CD cover I think is just stupid. I never liked the way the CD came out.
DOWNLOAD HERE
One positive result of being on Unisound Records briefly is that Shadowcaster was on a cool Compilation CD called "Into The Catachthonium Vol.2" released in late 1995 prior to the CD coming out. One of my favorite old tracks, "My Summoning Of The Darkest Princess" is on it alongside other labelmates (at that time in '95) Rotting Christ, Elysian Fields, Inbsatanity, Dark Heresy, Thou Art Lord, Necromass, Equinox (usa), Varathron, Mortuary Drape, Nergal, Diaboli & a few others. See pic below for tracklisting.
(all Unisound bands, came with an issue of SOD {Sounds Of Death} magazine)
DOWNLOAD HERE
Now 3 years went by before the next 2 Shadowcaster CD's were released. they came out together on Wild Rags Records in 1999, who actually about a year later ended their very long run as an underground label and mag. Anyways, they were interested in doing 2 CD's. One features new material far superior and different from the promo's, and the other is a sort of "best of" from the promo's and the "Abandonment" debut CD.
First we have the "Temptation" CD. This is sort of what "Abandonment" should have been. I changed a few things - a couple songs are now instrumentals (I removed the vocals from tracks 5 and 8). And the version of "Comfort Amongst The Desecrated Graves" is an alternate version different from the version on the 1994 promo#2. I also edited "The Shadowcaster" to a more listenable length, and the track after it "Isolation Theme" is an edit from the end of the original "The Shadowcaster". I separated it into it's own track with a new title. Again, all these songs were originally on the promo's or the debut CD so there is nothing new except for some alternate versions of some promo and CD songs. Plus the cool CD cover. I drew the logo.
"Temptation" 1999 CD
1. My Summoning Of The Darkest Princess (3:23)
2. Ever Melancholy (2:22)
3. Fearless And Surreal (18:47)
First Movement - Pain's Chaos Creeps Into Me
Second Movement - Hallucinations and Stimulations
Third Movement - Prolonged Aftermath, Then Solitude
4. Comfort Amongst The Desecrated Graves (alt.vers.) (8:27)
5. Abandonment (instrumental version) (3:08)
6. The Shadowcaster (edited version) (6:26)
7. Isolation Theme (an excerpt fr. "The Shadowcaster" original ending) (1:32)
8. Into An Abstract View I Sail (instrumental version) (3:43)
9. Ereshkigal's Gift (The Descent Of Inanna, Part II, The Ascension) (25:12)
DOWNLOAD HERE
.....And lastly we have the offiicial second and LAST Shadowcaster recording made. The "Psychelectronic Experience" CD also released in 1999. In my opinion this is the best Shadowcaster release. The first 2 songs are 15+ minute trippy epics connected by the theme of an acid trip through shaman eyes. Although I hadn't tripped myself since 1994, I still wrote about my experiences and with Shadowcaster I was by then making some rather 70's inspired trippy weird atmospheric music. I got ahold of a cool old 70's synth that got some interesting trippy sounds and I manipulated the sounds with effects and made some trippy stuff, even creating the effect of bongos and a tribal dance in part of one track. The lyrics that are spoken and narrated (no growling anymore) are inspired by the psychedelic philosophy of Terrance McKenna and Dr. Timothy Leary. I think they are the best songs I recorded. I had 8 tracks of stuff layered and time to create what I wanted. Whereas everything previously was recorded in one take in Evil Eyes living room, these 2 new songs were done in my home studio Mortuary Temple January to May 1997. It shows. The last track is the huge monumentally tripped out 34-minute long opening track from the 1994 promo #2. It's just been mastered and sounds better.
1. Entrance Into The Shaman Consciousness (15:43)
Phase I: First Bardo Ascendence
Phase II: Death And Rebirth
Phase III: Second Bardo Transcendence
2. Riding The Zenith (15:27)
Phase I: Beyond Human Language
Phase II: Third Bardo Resplendence
3. Journey Across The Vast Psychedelic Landscape To The Darkness Beyond (Hallucinations
With No Color) (33:54)
DOWNLOAD HERE
After that I just lost interest in doing anything further with Shadowcaster. Wild Rags folded and I was focused on Tearstained and Night Conquers Day by late 1999. Shadowcaster became a part of my past. It was my venture into something non-metal. I'm still into strange trippy music, especially 70's stuff.
Hey there, I just now noticed you had uploaded the promo tapes here! I've grabbed them and will do them also at the Coven if it's ok with you, some of my readers were asking after them.
ReplyDeleteLooks like I remembered right, the 2nd tape is REALLY long! Also, it's always nice to read the background to the recordings, the cemetary incident was surely ironic.