The divination of the dead! NECROMANTIA, an ancient Greek band that has delivered quite some good music throughout the years, a band I’ve followed closely, a band which music I have been listening quite a lot to, since I stumbled across “Scarlet Evil Witching Black” back in the days, though wasn’t totally convinced until the EP “Ancient Pride” was released a couple of years later, the three tracks and the well done cover of MANOWAR’s ‘Each Dawn I Die’ brought me to ave; and I went back and embraced the older releases, and later on the new ones, and I still await new material from the band, even though they have been quiet for quite too long. Though the Dutch label Soulseller Records has decided to release some goodies, while we wait, even if the wait might be ending up in vain, a collection of NECROMANTIA’s back catalogue of demos and 7″ releases, cover tracks from various releases, re-releases and such, together with the ‘Visions Of Lunacy’ demo from NECROMANCY, the band that more or less transformed into NECROMANTIA. A treat for fans of the band, as I guess not many have the whole collection at hand, I do not and hail this release! NECROMANCY that was fronted by Morbid, who moved on to form NECROMANTIA as Magus Vampyr Daoloth together with Baron Blood, can be called proto Death Metal, a fierce and thrashy attack with some good guitar leads, frantic rhythm patters (who said tightness mattered?), a good dark atmosphere. A quite promising and haunting output, that showed a lot of potential, a band that I personally think I would have enjoyed a lot, if they had moved forward, in the exact style as on “Visions Of Lunacy”, and the version of SODOM’s ‘Outbreak Of Evil’, ohh hell yeeaaaah!!! The beginning of NECROMANTIA was even more twisted and obscure than what appeared on the first couple of albums, chanting atmospheric rituals of the macabre. The promo tape from 1990 consists of 6 dark rituals of eerie and gripping Black Metal, very ambient and mystic, haunting and enchanting. My favorites on this release, and for that matter in NECROMANTIA’s whole discography is their material from the split with fellow Greek warriors of the obscure VARATHRON, together with “Ancient Pride” of course. Four tracks where the band is starting to collect the threads to what NECROMANTIA became, and is known for, obscure ambient atmospheric Black Metal with their distinct thrashiness, well rooted in darkness and ancient times. On top of all the goodies we have a bunch of cover versions, which is okay, though not mind numbing, even though NECROMANTIA puts their own mark on most of the tracks, and twists them into their own. A splendid collection of obscure Black Metal from the Greek masters, and with this and the band’s other releases, the craving for new material isn’t that big, as they will have a really hard time to top what they already have done in the past, as they’ve made quite some good music during the years! More info for the light of my darkness: www.facebook.com/necromantiaband, www.soulsellerrecords.com