BLOT MINE are a Swedish black/death metal band that have been active now since their formation in 1995. They released a demo called "Kill For Inner Peace" in 1997 which was closely followed by the full length album PORPHYROGENESIS in 1998. It wasn't until 2005 they released their second album ASHCLOUD, but now they have reissued their debut album 23 years after the original release. The band originally released this album through Near Dark Productions however they are no longer active, so the reissue together with five additional tracks was released through Vic Records.

The album starts with "Greater Than Life" which features heavy guitar hooks together with death metal style vocals. The drums are very precise and seem to get fairly muddy due to the excessive output of lower end frequencies. This track gives off the theme of pure evil and wickedness as well. "Sha Nagba Imuru" follows similar patterns mostly with the first track. But the drum excerpt around 3 mins 30 seconds does stand out.

"My Soul In Fury Flew" comes with more sustained tones however the rhythm feels like a triplet based time signature. The structure and arrangement of this track has to adapt to the new time change. There are also less vocal contributions and a tremolo effect for guitar that sounds very musical. "Dumu-Abzu-Ke" is highlighted with the excessive vocals and a sudden growling rumble.

"Without Words" opens with a different sort of intro but follows the same time change as before. The other instruments pulsate and even the closing section sounds like two guitar parts. "Fragmented Red Sun" seems to have a remarkable correlation between guitar & drums. The guitar also plays a higher range of tones too. "Off To War" and "Shadows From High-Hell" both share pulsating guitar riffs and both have death metal themed vocals. In the original release, it should be noted that this was the final track of the original version of this album.

However since this is a reissued version it includes five more tracks which are all demos. "Intro" which is actually a short instrumental demo that just has a keyboard part with quiet percussive hits. "Off To War" which of course is an early demo version of the album track. This could be seen as a stripped down version of the album version. "Coffins Of Clarity" follows through with screaming vocals and sounds we heard before. "Kill For Inner Peace" keeps the momentum going with the black/death metal sound. Guitar has a more decorative approach and there are variations in the rhythm with guitar or drums.

Last but not least, "Cold, Deserted and Dead" the last of the five demos which the lyrical content does reflect the title. There is also the sound of organ being played in this track like an interlude, in a way. I felt that keyboard sounds actually makes this track more appealing, yet maybe the addition of a keyboard could have been used in the original album release. As black/death metal goes there is probably too much focus on the lower end frequencies but perhaps the contribution of another instrument might have added more of a synthetic twist to this album.

In conclusion I would say the sound of this band is monotonous with the guitar & drums. The vocals do have some variation but not as much which I feel gives such a sombre tone but death metal vocals tend to be more lower in the audio input. There haven't been any other releases from the band so perhaps we may not hear anymore, who knows.Overall: 6