Silexater

Silexater - Mad Sorcer
Self-Released, 1994
Genre: Black Metal

1. Nighthunting
2. Dreamwalk
3. Grimmiste Bâtâlie
4. Mad Sorcer
5. Bloodsigned Night
6. Cold Flame










Some old demos have been lost to history and I think Silexater is a band suffering from such a fate. I'm not sure Silexater were legendary in the overall scene, but they were certainly known to the early German scene. They are also known because they were also one of the earliest projects working with Malicious Records. In more recent times their material has been re-released under No-Colours Records, so interest has resurfaced.

Silexater didn't last very long as a project and only had "Mad Sorcer", basically a full-length, and an EP later. "Mad Sorcer" is basically the epitome of the one man band sound. In revisiting this early stuff, I'm not sure it really stands the test of time like some of the early projects do. The riffing is ultra basic and it comes as no surprise to see the likes of Vlad Tepes referenced in the liner notes. A lot of the tracks on here are very long which forces this tape to clock in at over forty minutes in length. The songs just aren't that compelling to warrant this. I think part of the problem is that there is very little use of vocals on the recordings, so the guitar work ends up feeling quite monotonous after a while. The title track actually manages to have reminiscent moments of Mayhem though. Then towards the end of "Bloodsigned Night" there is a truly spectacular sequence on the guitar. The part that sort of mars the recording at time is the programmed drums... at least these sound programmed to me. Limbonic Art and Mysticum have managed to put out stellar material with programmed drums, but Silexater only sounds okay. When he's using the standard Black Metal drum beats, things sound fine, but a few times when he wants to include a drum fill things begin to feel a little sloppy. As the album progresses I feel the drumming actually manages to get more solid.

"Mad Sorcer" is merely an okay piece of music. Despite its liner notes praising Dead and Euronymous, I feel like the neverending riffing is more like Burzum, only not as atmospheric. His vocals are quite a bit better than Varg's, which is one of the reasons I'm surprised they're used so sparingly. Silexater is an interesting piece of history, but I can understand why his creation has sort of been lost to history even there are some very good moments. If you're looking for something that sounds primitive and old then Silexater might be an unknown piece to check out.