I decided to spend some time and pay homage to the band which undoubtedly deserves it... Band which gave birth to now famous TRISTITIA... Band whose style is nearly unique, at least it WAS unique back in 1992 - 1994. Ladies and gentlemen, here comes PAGAN RITES, firstly born under the name AUTOPSY TORMENT.
Two demo tapes were brought forth the light in the shape of AUTOPSY TORMENT, "Splattered" and "Darknest Rituals" - in 1991 - as well as "Moon Fog" 7"EP - in 1992. Totally underground, though still highly exciting black metal, slow as hell, and yes, it was original!
In the same year (i.e. 1992 a.t.b.b.) they decided to change the monicker and thus AUTOPSY TORMENT became PAGAN RITES. PAGAN RITES, whose tombstone says "Birth 1.992... Death 1.994".
During these few years they managed to unleash two demos, namely "Pagan Rites" and "Pagan Metal" + a totally great 7"EP. "Hails Victory!" featured two tracks ("Hail Victory!" and "Heathen Land") of poorly recorded, yet definitely intriguing mixture of heathen black and heavy metal, with nice guitar passages (this EP even has some solos - quite rare thing for a black metal band in 1993) and outstanding vokills performed by Tomas (who later became the singer for TRISTITIA), both "blackish" and "clean" ones. His "clean" voice sounds almost operatic, although, of course, Tomas is not an opera singer and never will be the one. By the way, one of the demos mentioned above features a fairly good cover of MANOWAR's "Blood Of My Enemies".
Lots of people passed through PAGAN RITES' lineup throughout years - Tomas (full name - Tomas Karlsson, the only vocalist this band has ever had), Luis (full name - Luis B. Galvez, guitar), Adrian (full name - Adrian Letelier, guitars and bass) (Luis later formed TRISTITIA, while Adrian participated in the recording of "Crucidiction" CD), Harri (guitars, drums), Kalle (drums) (the rumour was spread that he will join TRISTITIA as well... but it seems like it was a rumour only), Rickard (bass), Vladimir (guitars) and Fidde (session bass), however no one of them managed to keep the band alive.
They became silent for many years but oops! The year of 1997 arrived and we could behold (and listen to) the "Pagan Rites" CD, released by Warmaster Records, small Colombian label (yeah, this is really strange... South-American company, really small one, releases a CD from totally underground Swedish band...!) It was kinda 'retrospective' CD, compiling the material taken off both PAGAN RITES demos and 7"EP + surprise, surprise! The CD also brought five tracks ("Frost", "Lord Of Fire", "Crucified In Flames", "Pagan Rites" and "Unholy Ancient War") which were never released anywhere else before. What's most amusing, talking with Christian Jansson of Punishment Zine and answering the question "What will happen to the "Best Of" CD that was going to be released by Warmaster Rec", Luis said that "PAGAN RITES doesn't exist any longer. I don't know anything about any CD. I asked Thomas and he said that he never heard of it". I was really surprised reading this interview, since I always thought that a band should know when their albums are released... Anyway, Luis joined the band shortly before they split up, so who knows... maybe this kind of questions should be asked to Tomas... By the way, TRISTITIA contrived to release two demos and first full-length CD ("One With Darkness") through Holy Records by that time...
I believe they appeared as a worthy substitude for PAGAN RITES, although I will miss PR anyway. TRISTITIA is a good band, but PAGAN RITES was a cult to me. Let us not forget them.