Sevenfold Songs Of Death
Out of print, reissued as part of the Cask Strength Black Metal box set. EP released on CD-R by Pink Skulls. Harsh, noisy covers of traditional folk songs from various lands and one remastered track from The Blood Of Two Wolves. Vocals and drums contributed by Damien Hellfiend of Underlord and Demonskull, banjo on the final track by Svvarrttrr.

Die
Die
Die
Die
Die
Die
Die!
Sevenfold Song Of Death

Reviews

Misprint
November 15, 2003
Seven traditionals (Polish, I believe) and one original song make up one of the most evil sounding records I’ve heard lately. To top it off, this was made using string bass, cello, mandolin, tenor banjo, guitar, and drums. This is no normal folk record however, it actually sounds like Burzum. Perhaps they recorded on decade old tapes and turned the volume to be totally in the red, or maybe similar to the myth of Ulver’s ‘Nattens Madrigal’ album, they recorded this in a forest. Whatever it is, this sounds truly harsh and gnarly, but you can still discern melody behind the buzzing roar, static, and growled vocals. Totally unexpected grimness that is perfect for winter nights!

Aquarius Records
August 8, 2003
Polish Texan avant folk experimentalist Smolken has released three cd-rs so far of his Dead Raven Choir output on the Jewelled Antler label. Now DRC makes an appearance on Jewelled Antler side-imprint Pink Skulls, with a disc that is just too nasty and noisy to fit in with the JA aesthetic... With "Sevenfold Songs Of Death" he really indulges his black metal inspired side, resulting in 32 minutes of what might be called noise-folk. It's as if you took all the most raw, distorted, shrill, buzzy, chaotically noisy parts of your favorite black metal albums, cranked 'em up to 11, and tried to pass it off as folk music (supposedly, all words and music here, with the exception of one song, are "traditional"). Sure, Smolken and his friends are playing mandolin and banjo and percussion, but all that's buried beneath so much grinding hiss and drone that if you listen to this at more than the barest, most minute volume you'll endanger your ears/lease/stereo/sanity (not necessarily in that order). A low volume, you can make out the folky melodies and scary vocals. Turn it up at all, and it's like Merzbow meets Abigor meets Kemialliset Ystavat... More evil atmosphere than even Abruptum, seriously. Apparently, this was originally intended for an aborted split release with AQ black metal fave Leviathan, and we'd have to say that Leviathan's probably lucky that he didn't have to go up against this!

Foxy Digitalis
February 16, 2004
Rating: 6/10
Let me just say that I believe the Jewelled Antler Collective is putting out some of the most bizarre and interesting music around. While some of it isn't great, most of it keeps me coming back for more. They've been putting out some interesting stuff on their Pink Skulls label as well. Dead Raven Choir is Smolken, and his past releases have been excellent. However, on this CD-R put out by the JAC, I'm not so sure. If you've ever seen the movie Event Horizon, then you will understand what I'm about to say. This is some scary shit. 30 minutes of white noise, distortion laced guitars with unintelligible vocals underneath. If you remember the aforementioned movie, you'll remember the recording that is played in the beginning of some guy speaking Latin who sounds like he's possessed by Satan. That's what this entire release is. Musically, this is good stuff. Harsh, noisy, ambient drones with some hints of metallic percussion. It's well put together, but the vocals are just distracting. I imagine Marilyn Manson getting a hot iron rod up his ass or something; that's where it's going. Don't start hear if you're curious about Dead Raven Choir; 2001's "Sky of Rose and Wolves" is brilliant. If you're familiar with Smolken's work, though, it's worth owning.

Metal Archives
Author: Satanic Warmonger
April 20th, 2006
Rating: 0%
Total waste of time and even a download. I was expecting something quite different because of what I have heard from others. I really got something different. I dont think there is any talent in this entire EP. To begin with, its distorted so much, the vocals, and everything else thats going on, its really hard on the ears, but for only a few minutes because youre probably not going to want to sit here and listen to the entire piece of shit EP. The music, if you could call it that, is a bunch of classical instruments, like stand up basses and shit, playing some melodic stuff in the background (a bit hard to make out, its behind 100 inches of distortion. The songs arent really different, all really horrible and hard to sit through. I wouldnt consider this to be black metal, or try giving this to a black metaller. The black metaller would probably punch you in the face, this stuff is horrible. On the brightside, Merzbow fans and other fans of audio shit, check this out.