I’ve read Daniel Ekeroth‘s Swedish Death Metal twice. The first time was for enjoyment; the second time was for study. Ekeroth presents a massive array of bands, albums, and demos, most of which are obscure. The Internet has made it possible to hear much of what he’s talking about. From his book, I now have a long list of demos to track down. They are numerous enough for a lifetime of hunting. Occasionally I will post happy discoveries here.

Merciless – The Book of Lies

The Projections of a Stained Mind compilation is a good place to start. It’s basically a who’s who of Swedish death metal in 1991. There’s Entombed, of course, and young versions of Dismember and Unleashed, all of whom contribute brutal tracks. Therion and Tiamat also offer fine, uncut death metal, before they went foofy. Tomas Lindberg’s Grotesque is ripping, as is the legendary Nirvana 2002, whose demos are supposedly being compiled by Relapse for a reissue. Even Norwegian black metallers Mayhem show up and kind of fit in. Back then, the lines between death and black metal were blurrier. Perhaps the “winner” here is Merciless, with two ferocious tracks.

Normally I don’t post entire albums for download, but this compilation is long out-of-print, and its label CBR (aka Chickenbrain) is long defunct. Enjoy!

– Cosmo Lee

  1. Entombed – Forsaken
  2. Mayhem – Carnage
  3. Grotesque – Spawn of Azathoth
  4. Therion – Future Conscience
  5. House of Usher – Battle of Spectrum
  6. Merciless – Nuclear Attack
  7. Unleashed – The Dark One
  8. Nirvana 2002 – Mourning
  9. Chronic Decay – 1st of September
  10. Dismember – Sickening Art
  11. Mayhem – The Freezing Moon
  12. Merciless – The Book of Lies
  13. Macrodex – Cremation
  14. Traumatic – A Putrid Reek of Mangled Remains
  15. Tiamat – Ancient Entity
  16. Skull – On a Mission in Blood

V/A – Projections of a Stained Mind [192kbps, 92.31MB .rar]

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