UMUR "Within the Shadow of Darkness - The Complete Recordings" is a compilation album by Swedish death metal act Gorement. The compilation was released through Century Media Records in September 2012. Gorement were a relatively shortlived underground act, who released a couple of demos, a single and a sole full-length studio album before disbanding in the mid-nineties.

"Within the Shadow of Darkness - The Complete Recordings" features the full tracklist from the out of print "The Ending Quest (1994)" album (which in it´s original version was limited to 1000 copies), the four tracks from the "Human Relic (1991)" demo, the four tracks from the "Obsequies (1991)" demo (the versions of the tracks featured here are the remix versions which were used for the 7" vinyl version of the demo, which was released though Afterworld Records limited to 1000 copies pressed on pink vinyl), the two tracks from the "Into Shadows (1992)" single, three tracks from the 1995 promo and five live tracks recorded in 1991. Including two cover tracks by Carcass and Pungent Stench. It should be noted that the live tracks are only featured on the double CD version of the compilation. Disc 1 features the full "The Ending Quest (1994)" album and disc 2 features the remaining tracks. In short all of the recorded material by Gorement compiled on one compilation album.

Save for two of the tracks from the 1995 promo and the five live tracks, all material on the compilation were already released on the "Darkness of the Dead" compilation in 2004. This compilation has however been remastered by Dan Swanö and as a result features a marginally better sound production. While the extra material is of course great and the remaster is a great feature, I don´t think "Within the Shadow of Darkness - The Complete Recordings" represents enough value for the money if you already own "Darkness of the Dead (2004)". Chances are you don´t though as "Darkness of the Dead (2004)" was released in a relatively small number of copies through the small Necroharmonic Records label.

So that should make "Within the Shadow of Darkness - The Complete Recordings" a very interesting purchase to fans of old school Swedish death metal with British doom/death leanings (in the vein of early Paradise Lost). The quality of the material is very high and even though the main attraction is the out of print "The Ending Quest (1994)" album, the remaining material (which is a bit more raw, faster-paced and brutal than the material on the album) are pretty great too. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

Kev Rowland Gorement are one of those bands who form some reason or another didn’t get the breakthrough at the time that many felt they deserved, and now years later they are being treated with reverence and fans spend great sums of money in an attempt to get all of their recordings. That particular issue has now been resolved by Century Media who have made available in one set not only the famed 1994 album ‘The Ending Quest’ but also their 1992 EP ‘Into Shadows’, all three demoes plus four previously unreleased live songs from 1991, Then to top it all they have brought in Dan Swanö, who previously handled production of Gorement’s demos and ‘Into Shadows’ EP, to remaster all the songs that didn’t appear on the 2004 ‘Darkness of the Dead’ compilation.

The result is a set of songs from twenty years ago that easily stand up with Death Metal bands from today- these Swedes really knew what they were doing and it is no wonder that fans of the genre have been trying to get their material. This is old school death (not surprising when you see that the newest songs are from 1995) that has a rawness and power about it combined with a bleak atmospheric presence that is often associated with the very best Swedish Death bands, and there are few that do it better than Gorement. The chances are that this is not a band name that many apart from diehards are familiar with, but this set should change that. 28 songs that have been exhumed from the grave and made available again – again, this is a set that is well worth uncovering. www.centurymedia.com