Dissection - The Past Is Alive (The Early Mischief) (1997)

Released around the time Jon Nödtveidt began serving his sentence as an accomplice to murder, 'The Past Is Alive (The Early Mischief)' is a collection of Dissection's earliest songs. Although its not everything the band released prior to their debut, 'The Somberlain,' in fact the songs are not even assembled in the order they originally appeared on 'The Grief Prophecy' demo, 'Into Infinite Obscurity' EP and 'The Somberlain' demo. The 'Promo '93' is also completely absent and replaced with two songs from Jon's short lived band, Satanized.

The compilation kicks off with 'Shadows Over a Lost Kingdom' from the EP, and although the production is fairly raw, it can still be clearly seen that in late '91 when it was released that these four young lads from Strömstad, Sweden were onto something completely different. At a time when everyone in Sweden was following Entombed and Dismember, Dissection were already forging ahead with their more melodic tinged death metal. This is additionally notable due to the band members ages. Jon had just turned sixteen the previous month, while the other members were only between the ages of 17-18.

Dissection in '91

Continuing we come to 'Frozen,' taken from 'The Somberlain' demo from March of '92. Musically its fairly close to the album version, though the production is similarly raw and in a strange sort of way I 'almost' prefer it to the final version. Maybe it just has something to do with the underground tones or due to my own unmeasurable love for the bands first album, but I've always enjoyed hearing bands I admire in their embryonic stages.

The next five songs are all taken from these two recordings with 'Son of the Mourning' from the EP really standing out as the compilations best song, though by the time we reach 'The Call of the Mist' & 'Severed into Shreds' we see Dissection as they were at the beginning of '91. On 'The Grief Prophecy' demo the band offers up fairly straight forward Swedish death metal not entirely different from the bands mentioned above and even with typically growled vocals. The production is far more primal in style and is quite similar to all other demos of the era, but its certainly very listenable. Again even in these early days the musicianship and song writing is quite admirable and I can only imagine it was inspiring for anyone that heard these upon their original release. Curiously though the third song from the demo, 'Consumed' is missing and a quick hop over to youtube revealed it to be, honestly, probably the best out of the three tracks on the demo.

The final two songs are from the aforementioned Satanized, who had a few rehearsal tapes and one gig in November of '91. The production is loud and about as typically rehearsal like as you could get. Despite that its fast paced melodic death metal not sounding too different from Dissection's EP, which probably also explains why the band was quickly aborted. The band also had something of a future all-star line-up, with Thomas Backelin, Tobias Kellgren, Johan Norman and Per Alexandersson alongside Jon.

I hardly see 'The Past Is Alive (The Early Mischief)' as an essential release, but for the Nödtveidt and Dissection fans in general its an interesting look back at a couple of kids who innocently changed the future of black/death metal forever.

Nordic Metal - A Tribute To Euronymous (1996)

The concept for the Nordic Metal compilation was first brought to mind back in 1992 by Euronymous of Mayhem and Paul 'Typhon' Thind, the founder of Necropolis Records. The idea was to release an elite compilation of Nordic black/death metal bands to spread the word over in America and even possibly get Mayhem and other bands to the states to play some shows. Unfortunately, as you may know, Euronymous was murdered in the Summer of '93 and this compilation was eventually shelved. A few years later folks started asking what happened to the comp. and eventually in 1996 it was released as not only a fitting document of the early black/death metal scene in Norway & Sweden but also as a final tribute to Euronymous.

The compilation features fifteen songs from eleven different bands, namely; Abruptum, Mayhem, Dissection, Emperor, Mysticum, Marduk, Thorns, Ophthalamia, Enslaved, Arcturus and Mortiis. Within the booklet there's old photos, information on each band as well as many comments and detailed memories of Euronymous and the scene back in these early days from key members of the scene. However it's the music that is most important and on this particular compilation you'll surely find plenty of classic songs.

One of the true highlights of the comp. come from Abruptum who open the album with their song, 'De Profundis Mors Vas Consumet,' which is a bizarre, dark and completely twisted sounding piece of black metal that still to this day sounds very original. Mayhem are featured with two songs; one being an old rehearsal from '89 with Dead on vocals and the other being a rehearsal from '95 when the band was reformed with Maniac as the lead vocalist. Both are of outstanding quality of course too. Dissection makes an appearance twice with their songs, 'Where Dead Angels Lie' & 'Elizabeth Bathori,' both of which would later resurface on an EP in that same year. The two Emperor songs are of the most supreme quality, even if they are old and very raw rehearsals, while the two Mysticum songs are industrial black metal at it's finest that's still unmatched to this day.

The Marduk song, 'Untrodden Paths (Wolves Pt. II)' is taken from their, 'Opus Nocturne' album, which is arguably their finest hour, Whilst the Thorns rehearsal song, 'Ærie Descent' shows that even in the early 90's some bands were not afraid to make experimental and weird black metal sometimes. The Ophthalamia cover version of Mayhem's, 'Deathcrush' has always stood out as being stunning to me and actually far better than the original while Enslaved's song, 'Loke' from their album, 'Frost' is a most intense viking/black metal song, which I've enjoyed for many years now. The early Arcturus song, 'Rodt og Svart' has always given me this sleepy weird feeling, but it's an interesting experience nonetheless and the, 'Unreleased Outro' from Mortiis is very, very similar to his work on his debut, but again it's quite enjoyable.

When I bought this compilation ten years ago it was a blue print of sorts as it introduced me to new bands like Mysticum, Thorns and Opathalamia and of course provoked me to instantly get my hands on their albums as well as finding all the other releases from the bands on this comp. that I had not found just yet. If you're new to black metal or are just curious about the early scene then this is indeed a fine comp. to pick up and since it's been re-released numerous times I don't suppose it's hard to track down either. Be it for the music or for the interesting quote and stories within, 'Nordic Metal - A Tribute To Euronymous' is definitely worth getting your hands on.