A Ghast from the Past...

[Mike]

Rediscovered on an old CDr and finally permitted to crawl from its crypt by its maker, the 2006 edition of Undying's "A Haunt Within The Mist" is now available here. This is the version that was once to be released on Italy's Eerie Art Records; however, that was not to be.

On revisiting the master, Undying's creator has made the decision to make both this and the remixed and remastered version from 2007 available, as both versions have different strengths and weaknesses. The 2007 version will become available once somebody finds it...

[TheHierophant]

It is a wonderful and yet unexpected news. I really enjoyed the two songs on myspace, I actually like it better than Emperor itself (if my memory serves, I read on myspace Emperor was one of the reasons why all that work was done) , and hope one day somebody finds the 2007 version !
Is Undying still active by the way ?

[Tyranor]

Finally, this project has been remembered! I have three songs on my PC so far, and now I'm happy to hear other tracks at last. Seriously, it is an outrage that this album is still not released properly to this day.

[Mike]

Hierophant, that sounds more like my black metal project Aureolis than Undying. If that's the case then Aureolis is still active as well, it's just that the material needs rerecording because it's too sloppy, and we decided Tenements and the forthcoming Wodensthrone album had to take precedence. We'll be redoing Aureolis later this year hopefully and then be able to get on with more material.

Undying also remains active to my knowledge, though at a characteristically glacial pace - some of the material on "A Haunt..." dated back to 1999 which says a lot about the band's work rate. No idea when new material will actually manifest in the public domain though - your guess is as good as mine, but I'd presume the long-delayed Kult of Eihort full-length "The Ignoble Radiance" should be taking precedence. I'm glad "A Haunt..." is getting some love though, it was a lot of fun for me to work on (it was recorded during downtime for the "Deleted Scenes" sessions, which is why it shares the guitar sound).

[Darkcrawl]

Oh hello! Thanks for sharing Mike!

[murayne]

Absolutely fantastic stuff.

[TheHierophant]

Mike. I noticed that guitar sound I'm so crazy about on "Deleted Scenes" (Digitech Metal Master once again isn't it ?). Undying is has really great stuff. I find the slowest parts very inspiring, the work on the guitar arpeggios as intelligent as complex.
I like it so much I'm already learning the parts by ear.

[Mike]

Yeah, a Metal Master routed through a Digitech RP7 for amp modelling then directly into the computer. What I know of the new Undying material has concentrated more on the slower parts, with less of the endless droning blastbeats that were on songs like "Dark Winds...".

[TheHierophant]

"Dark Winds..." is excellent though. There is a very good contrast in this song precisely because there is a endless droning blastbeat, and then, a slow second part. That's all its strength : contrast. The arpeggio on the second half is still one of my favorite, it spreads something The Axis would call "the black light" upon devastated fields.

Grandiose.

[Mike]

To be honest, I'm enjoying this a LOT more than I thought I would. Once I got over my initial reservations about some of the technical issues I was in charge of, I think the material stands up really well. It'd be great if it saw a CD issue one day but I don't know how likely that is - I know it didn't really create any buzz five years ago and if anything early-90s-style bands are even more ubiquitous these days so I don't know if Undying is just another drop in the vast traditionalist black metal ocean. At least we're liking it!

[Tyranor]

May 9, 2011 0:32:49 GMT Mike said:

it didn't really create any buzz five years ago

Well, no surprise, it wasn't released five years ago:D
Such are the laws, that lots of mediocre stuff gets promotion and recognition while some good and unique stuff has to wait (sometimes forever) to be dug out.

[Mike]

Not the full thing I guess, but the project only managed to generate minor interest with the tracks uploaded to Myspace despite attempts at publicity. I guess only having a few tracks on Myspace is another reason in itself though...

[Mike]

A review of "A Haunt..." popped up on Metalsucks yesterday in a round-up of freebie albums, written in a skewed but very entertaining and original way:

www.metalsucks.net/2011/06/06/freeloader-a-greenbergian-analysis-of-four-albums-by-lonely-dudes/

[The Moderator]

cool beans well done

[Tyranor]

Well written, but they should have given definitely higher mark actually:D