Friday, May 31, 2019

V/A - "Metalstorm (The First Georgian Metal Compilation)" [1998]

Title: Metalstorm (The First Georgian Metal Compilation)
Genre: Metal
Country: Georgia
Year: 1998

Track List:
  1. Mzime Jvari - Heavy Cross
  2. Mzime Jvari - Dream in Reality
  3. Tattooed Monk - Tattooed Monk
  4. Tattooed Monk - Nightmare Lullabye
  5. Blackends - Planet D'Earth
  6. Blackends - Handful of Blood
  7. Last Supper - Red Snow
  8. Last Supper - Hope
  9. Sadizm - Genocide
  10. Sadizm - Nothing Come Through
  11. Pergamo - Through the Soulfrosted Infernal Flame
  12. Pergamo - Insanity Is the Cemetery of My Rolling Dreams
Another highly interesting find on YouTube: the very first compilation of Georgian metal, released on cassette in 1998. All the bands featured on there, except for Mzime Jvari, have never released anything else, so it's extremely rare stuff. The quality of recording is surprisingly decent, given that it was made in a country which suffered from rampant poverty during the 1990s, and where the public attitude towards metal was very hostile. Here you can read an interview with a former member of Pergamo (and some other Georgian black metal bands) and get some idea of how difficult it was to be a metal musician (or even just a man with long hair) in Georgia back then. Now the situation is apparently much more relaxed, and while Georgia remains a non-metal country as a while, Tbilisi has a more active metal scene than any other place in the Caucasus (which isn't saying much, though). Hopefully I'll visit Georgia soon and get some first-hand experience.

Stylistically, "Metalstorm" is quite varied: Mzime Jvari (aka მძიმე ჯვარი, "Heavy Cross") and Tattooed Monk play traditional heavy metal, Blackends play thrash metal, Last Supper - doom metal, Sadizm - death/grind, and Pergamo - black metal. You can listen to the whole thing on YouTube:

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