The original reasons for ending Lunar Hypnosis were many; I was sick of shitty promos, sick of reviewing in general, needed time away from the computer, I wasn't dealing very well with a recent hearing issue, updating the website was annoying and time consuming, and, I guess, I just felt burnt out after all those years of insanely hard work. During those years my comrades and I wrote over 2500 reviews, we conducted over 100 interviews, wrote various music related articles and the 'zine was also responsible for releasing three mp3 compilations.
At the time (2005) I really didn't know any other 'zine that was offering a free compilation/sampler of bands that the editor admired and I therefore took it upon myself to do just that. I set out and contacted every new and upcoming band I admired at the time with hopes of getting their permission to use a song on the first Lunar Hypnosis compilation, which ended up being titled, 'Dreams of Winter Under the Scorched Summer Sun.' I even made front and back cover artworks, which are included with the downloads. So, I guess, I took this whole project very seriously.
To celebrate the one year anniversary of Lunar Hypnosis as a blog (party hats, blow whistles and beer, everyone!) I've decided to unearth those three compilations and make them available once again. Below find the links to download the comps. as well as some brief commentary from me on each one.
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For a debut compilation this one turned out quite nicely and I was very pleased with it's quality and diversity of musical talent. The music on this one ranges from dark ambient to black metal, neo folk, neo classical and neo medieval styled music. One of the songs on this comp. was never released in any other form as well two of the songs are older 90's projects of Jason William Walton of Agalloch fame who kindly donated two songs to this comp.
Tracklist:
1. A Crown of Amaranth - A Swift Combination of Words
2. Emancer - Explicit Repugnance
3. Massemord - Solen Skinner Ikkje
4. Susurrus Inanis - Such as this Water
5. Elffor - Grimmest Winternights
6. Vinterriket - Winternacht - Kalte Schwärze im Bann der silbernen Sonne
7. Novalis - Wild Horses
8. Velonnic Sin - Ritual
9. Adhur - Iluno
10. Sykdom - Forgotten Tale
11. Aardia - The Summoner
12. V:28 - DeConstructor
13. VLE - ...Of Wood & Water
14. Ganzmord - Demoness of Whores
15. Uvall - Comfortless, Affliction and Loss
16. V.B.G. - The Bleeding Place
17. Jääportit - Pisaroi puusta pitkälle
DOWNLOAD HERE
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The second compilation is my least favorite of the three and that's simply because for this comp. I made an open invitation for folks to submit their bands and in the end pretty much choose everything that got submitted. I remember one guy in particular offered his reviewing services in exchange for having his shitty band Admatha on the comp. I also remember how he said he'll write lots of reviews and would be happy to review promos too. Curiously I never heard from him after sending those promo CDs. Fucker. Nevertheless, some great bands do grace this comp., namely; Nostalgia, Endless Blizzard, Caina, Verhoren, Sombrous, Inquinox and a few others. Also several songs on this one were exclusive to the comp and even to this day remain so. Again, a good mix, but maybe it's too diverse this time around, I dunno, but check it out, anyway.
Tracklist:
1. Nostalgia - Prologue: Decomposition
2. Endless Dismal Moan - Griefs
3. Putre et Solve - Ignotum per Ignotius
4. Inquinox - Lost in Dreams
5. Conversations About the Light - You Need me (Swans cover)
6. Endless Blizzard - Beyond the Frozen Gate
7. Mountain Mirrors - Praying Mantis
8. Verhoren - The Ossuary
9. MarAmon - Why?
10. Sombrous - Reluctant Descent
11. A. Lixiva/Verhoren - Sans Fin
12. Admatha - And they Wept
13. Arc Fatalis - Decay
14. Caina - Fields of Rape (Death in June cover)
15. The Aria Sea - Closing in
16. Taliesin - Tree Spirit Calls
17. Spectral Lore - The Quiet Fall
DOWNLOAD HERE
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The third Lunar Hypnosis compilation was by far the best of the three as I had finally achieved what I thought was a fantastic mix of talented, dark, melancholic, evil, brutal and atmospheric artists all in place. Musically it was a mix of black metal, ambient, neo folk, dark rock, acoustic, noise and neo classical music. The compilation was also released on Halloween that year and although not all bands may fit, I wanted to have a theme of Autumn, Winter and Halloween, but honestly after playing it again recently I do think many bands on here are perfect for these late months of the year. Anyway, if you download any of these this is definitely the one as the best artists are present here, there's a few exclusive songs and I'm sure you'll find these songs perfect for listening too while gazing at the snow falling outside your window.
Tracklist:
1. Valerio Orlandini - The Crawling Leaf
2. Falls of Rauros - The Fire we Fathered
3. Weh - And the Bells are Ringing Doom
4. Dialis - Theatres
5. Inlaid Rust - Stumble over sheeted Dead
6. Bones of the Elephant - Cement Staircase
7. Art of Empathy - Winter's Dancing
8. Velonnic Sin - Constricting the Dead
9. Dormant - Black Ashes
10. SoundZcapa - The First Snow (part 2)
11. Valkyrja - Everything Rupture
12. Gurtholfinn - Dying Alone
13. Verhoren - Where snow ends and Ashes begin
14. Orphonic Orchestra - Reasons
15. Electric Bird Noise - Nights like last night make me wanna believe in Ghosts
16. Kratornas - Dead Messiah
17. Plutonium - The New Consciousness
18. Dahlia's Tear - Close yours Eyes and cease to Exist
DOWNLOAD HERE
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Lastly my greatest of thanks to those who have been reading this 'zine during the past year and of course to those that have been hanging around and reading for years. If you like what you hear on these comps. then spread the word on them and Lunar Hypnosis in general. Hopefully Lunar Hypnosis will continue on strongly for another year, and, who knows, maybe another compilation some day too. Thanks.
Sweet congrats! : )
ReplyDeleteThe links to the compilations seem to be broken, or they are no longer available. Could you mind uploading some new ones?
ReplyDeleteYeah, man, I'll get them back online today or tomorrow.
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