MALHAVOC • Age Of The Dark Renaissance Demo

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Private/Indie 1986
So I finally had a hankerin' to hear this one again, and went over to my old friend Vim's A Warrior Of Genghis Khan blog to get it, but the link is dead. So I dug up my old cassette and got to rippin'. Goddamn! Hearing this again is a total timewarp. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this is the best thing that any Metal band from Toronto has ever done... sure, everything from Toronto is measured against SACRIFICE, but I get way more enjoyment outta this than I do from SACRIFICE, or SLAUGHTER, or... well that's it really isn't it. I'm gonna quote Mr. Fuego for this one, cuz he summed it all up perfectly:

H.P.Lovecraft, Bathory and Celtic Frost were the prime inspirations for Malhavoc in '87. Spine chilling riffs with the creepiest vocal style ever created. The intro is just killer and that first riff is never to far back in my sub conscience (kind of a variation on Instellar Overdrive). The gtr tone has always reminded me a little of Kill 'em All though the music is light years away. There are so many killer riffs on this but my fav riff has always been the one in Fey at 1:42. Also known as "The Riff That Never Dies!" Throw out yer meter cause the drums are real slop in places, but it only adds to the frankenstein effect in the end. I cut alot of gtr teeth on this demo and still consider these tunes to rank with the best of that era. Unfortunately, Malhavoc abandoned their classic style a couple of years later after an failed attempt to release an album, Shrine, on Toronto's ever inept Fringe Records. Thankfully some of these recordings were tagged on as bonus tracks to later Malhavoc releases, but here are the demos in all their raw tape-hissing glory.

Unfortunately I don't have an original copy of AOTDR, so that crappy artwork you see has nothing to do with this demo... it's just something I threw together so there's cover art on my ipod... sorry James.
DOWNLOAD: Malhavoc-AgeOfTheDarkRenaissance.rar (71.45 MB)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Going to DL this one later, but just wanted to mention how much I'm liking your blog. Listening to Backwater right now, absolutely excellent if you're a Venom/Motorhead/Tank-tard like me.

Anonymous said...

Whoa!! Checking out their discography made me remember how much I disliked their industrial period, but this is pretty good. Even enjoy their "guitar noise in an echo chamber" ambient bits.

Alcolm X said...

I haven't heard the industrial stuff in ages... I liked it at the time, but nothing they did ever topped this demo.

VimFuego said...

"Prepare to return from the grave..."

Anonymous said...

Nice quality rip...Cheers! I do enjoy the earlier metal stuff myself (like this demo and Shrine). I guess I'm a guitar, drums, bass kinda guy (eventhough I played guitar on The Release, Punishments and Premeditated Murder.) This was recorded on an 8 track in James' basement which was unique back in those days.

Rob W

Droid Sektor said...

Thanx man.I've been a fan of James C. and CO. stuff since 91/92 (release/punishments), so its cool now to hear their metal roots. Ok, i enjoy this demo, its sure is great, but their industrial-rock-metal period (aeons ahead of Godflesh and contemporaries...Laura Palmer songs?!?! lol) was way beyond wicked. True visionaires.At the time I called it whisper metal (ahah...Mr. C.'s vokills were absolute stunning). I was heavily into death,black,speed,thrash,heavy, fairly normal and industro-rock like Ministry\NIN, so Malhavoc was way beyond the reach of normal heavy metal for me back then. So I have to say this: James C and Anonymous (probably the dude with Godflesh shirt on back of "release" cd) thanx for showing a new path for music: Whisper industro-metal! Oh yeah, and even the Techno phase was cool..in between Brocas Helms records was nice change! Can only compare to greats like Skinny Puppy\FLA\Voivod in my pantheon of canuck noise godz. Cherio from Portugal

Anonymous said...

a friend of mine runs this, you may want to check it out:

http://malhavocfans.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Hellwoes,

James C./Jimi LaMort/MCJC here. Sorry to be a stickler but the date is wrong. The Age of the Dark Renaissance demo was recorded and released in the summer of '86.

Planning on releasing this demo as i do believe it is a lot better then the death/thrash stuff that got released later by us, Malhavoc. Also expect a new Malhavoc album soon and thanks for the promo.

Alcolm X said...

Hey James... I think re-releasing this is a great idea! Personally I'd love to see it on vinyl, and even vaguely considered contacting you to propose the idea. I definitely agree that these are superior to the later Shrine versions.

I've corrected the release date.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

right on.thanks dude.Malhavoc & Overthrow were the best bands ever to exist in TO.

Anonymous said...

Please bro upload the Malhavoc 1983 and 1984 demos

Alcolm X said...

You should be able to find those recordings here: http://malhavocfans.blogspot.com along with almost everything else Malhavoc related.