DAWN — The Eternal Forest - Demo Years 91-93 (review)

DAWN — The Eternal Forest - Demo Years 91-93 album cover Boxset / Compilation · 2014 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"The Eternal Forest - Demo Years 91-93" is a compilation album by Swedish death/black metal act Dawn. The compilation was released through Century Media Records in April 2014. Dawn was formed in 1990 and "The Eternal Forest - Demo Years 91-93" features the band´s three pre-album demo releases: "Demo 1 (1992)", "Apparition (1992)", and "Promotional Demo 1993". The tracklist isn´t in chronological order, as the two tracks from "Demo 1 (1992)" are placed last on the compilation.

Dawn is probably mostly known as a melodic black metal act, which is also true for their album releases, but the material on the three demos are predominantly old school Swedish death metal to the bone (although Dawn use more blast beats than usual for the genre). The exception are the three tracks from "Promotional Demo 1993", where the vocals have changed from an unintelligible deep growling to an aggressive blackened snarl. Something which to my ears suits the music much better than the monotone growling featured on the two early demos. The instrumental part of the three tracks from "Promotional Demo 1993" is still predominantly in old school Swedish death metal territory, but black metal elements have started to creep into the band´s sound on that release.

It´s interesting to note that there are two tracks on the compilation, which were originally featured on two out of the three demos. "Thirst of the Dead" was featured on both "Demo 1 (1992)" and on "Apparition (1992)", while "In the Depths of My Soul" was featured on both "Apparition (1992)" and on "Promotional Demo 1993". The development of the band´s sound from death metal to a more blackened sound is especially interesting to follow on the latter, which sounds vastly different featuring blackened snarling vocals compared to the deep growling vocals featured on the original version.

Quality wise it´s also the three tracks from "Promotional Demo 1993" that are the most interesting on the compilation, while the early material by the band is rather one-dimensional and features few catchy hooks. It´s alright while it plays, but soon forgotten when it´s over. The sound production is clear and powerful on the material from "Apparition (1992)" and "Promotional Demo 1993", while it´s a bit more lo-fi and raw on the two tracks from "Demo 1 (1992)". The raw sounding production on the material from "Demo 1 (1992)" isn´t necessarily an issue though, as I find the early version of "Thirst of the Dead" more charming than the more professionally produced version from "Apparition (1992)".

Overall "The Eternal Forest - Demo Years 91-93" is a good overview of the early recordings by Dawn and as a compilation featuring all early material by the band it functions well. The quality of the material is a bit up and down though, and not enough of it sticks to warrant more than a 3 star (60%) rating.
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