NED I STILLHETEN (DEMO)

"Ned I Stillheten" ("Down Into Silence") is the 2nd demo cassette tape by Norwegian black metal act Manes. The demo was released in 1994 but has since been re- released on CD by the Hammerheart Records sub-label Unveiling The Wicked in 1998 limited to 1000 copies. It was also re-released in 2005 on LP along with the debut demo by Manes called "Maanens Natt (1993)". The tracks from "Ned I Stillheten<"/i> are also included on the "Svarte Skoger (2006)" (Black Forests") compilation album.

The music on the demo is old school Norwegian black metal. Noisy high end guitars, raspy vocals and blasting drums. There´s an epic element in the music at times too. Manes were at this stage still a two piece band with Sargatanas handling vocals and Cernunnus handling all instruments. You should think that after the rather unlistenable lo-fi sound quality of the debut demo Manes would have learned a few production tricks but that´s definitely not the case on "Ned I Stillheten" which features an equally lo-fi and muddy sound. It´s almost impossible to hear what´s going on in the tracks. "Månens Natt" ("Night of the Moon") and "Uten liv Ligger Landet Øde" ("Without Life the Land lays Waste") would both appear on the debut album "Under ein Blodraud Maane (1999)" by Manes.

"Ned I Stillheten" is a collector´s item just like the debut demo and with the poor sound quality it should have little interest to others than the most hardcore fans. A 1 star (20%) rating is warranted. Personally I´m disappointed that they haven´t improved since "Maanens Natt (1993)" . "Ned I Stillheten" is amaturish, noisy and not very entertaining.