At last, the second demo of Imbolc has been released. It took these three guys and one gal far too much time to get everything recorded as the original plan was to go into the studio last summer. Eventually in January they went into the Voodoo Studio, owned by Paul van Rijswijk from the famous Dutch band Hammerhawk.

He also produced and mixed the whole thing and for a demo it sounds impressive. The production is raw and powerful and although a few things could be better, no band could complain about this.

Imbolc has been around since 1997 and has gathered some attention in the Dutch scene with their energetic live performances and their love for cheese. The best thing about Imbolc (besides bass player Digna) is the fact that they play whatever the hell they want to play. As long as it sounds good they play death metal (“Berserker Furies”), black metal (“Maelduin”) or both at the same time.

Besides playing fast or weird (check the intermezzos in “Compulsive Dissection”), they also discovered the strength of slowing things down a little.

The last track “We Are But Devastatingly Transient” begins with a long bass intro and a sample of the movie “American Psycho” and has a really creepy doomy atmosphere. The best track on “Berserker Furies” in my opinion is “Until Daybreak” which shows a more melodic Imbolc and sometimes even reminds me of Primordial, because of the doubled guitar harmonies.

So, as you can see you can’t pin Imbolc down to a specific style, all the things they include in their sound may not be all too original, together they form the music of Imbolc and are instantly recognizable. Another major part of Imbolc’s style is vocalist/guitarist Tijmen who has a very distinct way of screaming. In a live situation he’s accompied by guitarist/vocalist Bram, but on these recordings he’s doing all the vocals just as Bram plays most of the guitars. Everyone must do what they are best at, n’est ce pas?

The cover by the way, is hand printed, hand glued and hand folded by the band so each copy is unique. Get’em while they last!