TERMINUSJewels Of Gwahlur Vol. III: Into Exile...(Stormspell)cd$ 5.98
The metal label Stormspell's motto is "Old farts stuck In the '80s and proud of it". They're the folks who have been bringing us a lot of cool cd reissues of obscure, cult metal bands from the '80s (such as Max Planck, Xinr and Detest), some of 'em as part of Stormspell's ongoing "Red White and Heavy Arcane Collector Series For The Initiated" featuring long-lost demos from bands that are SO cult and obscure they never even got signed to make a proper album. Well, the old farts at Stormspell have now found some young bands also stuck in the '80s, and have begun a new series of releases, putting these bands' demos out on cd but this time not waiting 30 years to do it. Fantastically dubbed the "Jewels Of Gwahlur" series (the Jewels Of Gwahlur being the macguffin of a Conan story of the same name), five volumes have now been released, and we're reviewing 'em all this list. It's a bit like something else Stormspell did some years ago, the "Thrash Clash" series of splits by underground thrash acts. But these bands are even more "old school" in sound. Each entry in the series comes in nice trifold digi-wallet packaging, the covers pretty much identical except for the band logos, with a standardized "bejewelled ancient leather tome" look, a la the 3rd Edition D&D rulebooks if you're familiar with those; doubtless some of these bands are! However, despite the uniform design, each entry in the series gets its own unique artwork on the inside, as well as credits, liner notes, etc. Most of these discs are ep-length, around 4-6 tracks, but it should be noted that they're quite cheaply priced. So even though we're reviewing each one individually you might as well buy 'em all and let your cd player sort 'em out! As for us, we're looking forward to hearing more from all these bands (pretty sure we will!), and are curious as to what further Jewels Of Gwahlur will be uncovered by Stormspell in the future. TERMINUS hail from Northern Ireland, and like Graven Rite, another band in the Jewels Of Gwahlur series, also play what's described in the liner notes as "arcane heavy metal". Chugging forth speedily but with what seems like a sense of profound sadness, again this is quite epic. In fact, this four-song demo appears to be some sort of science fiction concept ep, with each song referencing a story from the first book in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. That's where the band's name comes from too. The sweeping, epic feel of the music, along with the vocals, very much reminds us of doomy British metallers Solstice, big aQ faves. And Manilla Road, too, yep; the words "crystal logic" are even worked into the lyrics on the first track here. So, very cool, and with Graven Rites, one of the most "arcane" sounding entries in the Jewels Of Gwahlur series.
- MPEG stream: The Psychohistorians