Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Unknown Shadows

Mystic Charm was an unsung band from Holland fronted by an enigmatic young woman named Rein Doze. After releasing a demo (Endless Sickness) in 1992, and an EP (Lost Empire) in 1993, Mystic Charm unleashed their only full-length record on the world, 1994's Shadows of the Unknown. This album is a brilliant example of the kind of doomed down Death Metal that was somewhat prevalent at the time. Apart from Ms. Doze, much of Mystic Charm's appeal lies in the great Celtic Frost via Obituary guitar tones, sluggish riffing, and the general atmosphere of the recording that evokes a time when Metal in general was wholly less complicated. Just the graveyard lurch of Dutch stoners and the one chick in their town that liked cool music. Charming to say the least.

16 comments:

Unknown said...

thanks, only on the first song but i can pretty much tell that the whole thing is going to rule

e normous said...

neat, don't think I've heard of this one before...

ido said...

Ya know, sometimes uncomplicated really is best. Thank you.

east kansas banger said...

Aesop... are you psychic? (lol) I have been on a huge female metal kick lately and this totally fit right in! Very cool band and very cool album. Thanks for this one.

Will Towles said...

dose that cow skull on the cover only have one?

Anonymous said...

Mystic charm bring to mind Mythic, Sorrow and the mighty Winter. I dig this record...Great post on a top notch Blog!

chris said...

Sounds just like what I needed to hear today, thanks.

E.Bleak said...

This is excellent, thanks for posting it - I'm on the second listen now and there's real beauty in this album. Always glad to see female-fronted bands, too. :D

Anonymous said...

If this is in the vein of Warlord's " Deliver Us" I'm sold. Will check out soon.

e normous said...

I thought Warlord were classic metal... I think.

(image code is "portions"? is it using real words or is that just a fluke?)

Anonymous said...

thanks! this one rules.

Anonymous said...

Ok, this is not Warlord(my bad, I guess the cover had me going that way) but this is awesome Trouble/Confessor tuning love. I did have to smile when I went to track this down for a store bought copy and it goes for 90.00 plus. Thank as always teacher.

smrat said...

Gah! SO GOOD! Thank you!

dustinswanson said...

i'm surprised by how much i dig this. haven't been into any doom lately.

Anonymous said...

This is awesome. Thanks for putting this up!!!

Psychic said...

Hmm Well I was just searching on Google for some psychic readings and psychic articles and just came across your blog, generally I just only visit blogs and retrieve my required information but this time the useful information that you posted in this post compelled me to reply here and appreciate your good work. I just bookmarked your blog.