I will keep my introduction short, for Grand Celestial Nightmare is one of the 665 outfits that include the Dutch multi-faceted musician Maurice ‘Mories’ De Jong. You might know him as well from acts like Gnaw Their Tongues, The Sombre, Aderlating, Pyriphlegethon, Cloak Of Altering, Coffin Lurker and tens of others.
The first time that I came in touch with New Era Productions was when I bought the Bloodwraak – Verdoem Al ‘t Christelijk Leven album by Mordaehoth at the beginning of this century. It’s this label once again that takes care of this must-have compilation, because of the rarity of the material on it. And it was the first time I listened to Mordaehoth too.
All right, and beware: this stuff is pretty old, going for the original writings as well as the recordings. So don’t expect to hear something in the vein of the recent trends, okay…
The Dutch band Infinity was formed in 1995. Throughout the years, the band recorded a handful of great albums with a same-minded structure, yet with a slightly different final execution. After some changes in line-up, Infinity eventually signed to the roster of Dutch label New Era Productions in early 2012, and a first result of this collaboration was the compilation Back To The Source…, an album with re-recordings and cover songs.
When it comes to ‘occult’ themes within the Black Metal scene, many countries might claim ‘courtesy’, but I guess Greece is one of those unnaturally-created eras (aka ‘country’) on Mater Terra that houses many ‘occult’ bands. And within quite an impressive list of bands worth mentioning (but I won’t enlist them, for it will distract from the essence, and since I am too lazy…), Acherontas cannot be denied / ignored at all.
One of the oldest still-existing Black Metal formations from The Netherlands is Countess, formed in 1992 by multi-instrumentalist / vocalist Zenon and synth-meister Vercingetorix. The both released a first demo (tape) in 1992, before they were joined by Orlok, shortly after he left the great band (and I do mean that, though apparently not many people share this opinion) Fallen Temple. In mean time, both founding members left, and Orlok is the driving force since.
