Leviathan Demo Discography (1998 – 2002)


Leviathan began, according to Wrest, as “a notebook for myself” way back in 1998. To date Leviathan has released over 15 demos (including uncatalogued material from post-‘Tentacles of Whorror’ that remains largely unknown), 3 full length albums, plus incalcuable amounts of splits and compilations. If you’ve heard the double disc release ‘Verrater’, which provides us with some of the more popular material from the demos, then you have a rough idea about what is to come. The main problem for me regarding the Verrater release is the material therein represents almost too cohesive a summary of Wrest’s back catalogue. Songs have been renamed and edited, re-recorded or transformed. These other, less travelled, more obscure and cavernous paths of Leviathan present some of Wrest’s influences with more clarity; titanic Gorgorothesque riffs from the gruff palm-muted stereotypes of heavier metal in the earlier demos through to the burzumic keyboard arrangements and startling cold melodicism that propagate the latter demos. All the while maintaining the ethereal floating majesty and penchant for colossal atmosphere in Wrest’s newer, more organic material. Whats interesting is his development and mastery of slower, mid paced pieces towards a faster realm of metal as chronology grinds ever gracefully onward. Prepare to hear influences from Swans, Bauhaus, Lungfish, Der Black Metal 1337, as well as math metal tendencies. Herein lies the oppurtunity to study each page of Wrest’s ‘notebook’ and discover some hidden gems that have long been pushed aside, as well as embracing the foetal forms of his ideas. Each demo has appeal within its own context and I encourage any fan of Wrest’s latter work to embrace his fledgling roots, delve deep into a psychology of turmoil and give these a download.

Suicide as metamorphosis. Suicide as the realization of not being meant for this life. Suicide as self-strength, not self-pity. Many are the walking dead, unaware that they suicided themselves long ago. Humans are one of the few animals that contemplate suicide. They should take advantage of this.

Links removed. Take Wrest’s advice; kill yourself!

Notes of interest: Demo I was intentionally unreleased – disputed to contain material Wrest claimed ‘too immature’ to make available. Rumour has it Demo 8 ‘Video Brolo’ was made widely unavailable too, however, this is the original, not the fake copy that has been making its rounds on the internet over the last 2 years (the fake, being essentially a rehoused version of demo 4 ”Misanthropic Necro Blasphemy’) – 8 represents a slower, more experimental vibe to Wrest’s work. ‘Howl Mockery at the Cross’ differs from the Moribund compilation release of the same name in that it remains a stand alone demo. Demo’s XIII, XIV, XV and the albums ‘Tenth Sub Level of Suicide’ and ‘Tentacles of Whorror’ share alot of songs and ideas. ‘Verrater’ includes reworkings of the audio and titles of numerous songs. ‘Sacrifice Love at the Altar of War’ is not a demo, it is a compilation of tracks found on ‘Seven & Slaveship’ and ‘Inclement Derision’.

You'll find me in the vast wilderness of British Columbia, talking metal at LURKER, or working in publishing and front-end web/eBook development.

25 Comments

  • February 22, 2010

    JohanAsTree

    Amazing stuff, thanks!

  • February 22, 2010

    n.

    you guys rule. i've had the hardest time trying to find some of these. thanks.

  • February 24, 2010

    Flesh Monolith

    had a bunch, but was missing some, thanks a lot.

    -F

  • March 6, 2010

    Kris

    Thanks so much for posting all of these! However, you wouldn't happen to have rips of these demos at higher bitrates would you?

  • March 8, 2010

    Bile

    Unfortunately not. The rips I made of these demos were from a few years back and since I've got rid of the originals. Hopefully some kind soul who owns them will eventually give us decent rips though – I will always keep an eye out.

  • April 3, 2010

    The Count

    Anyone else having trouble with Demo 5: Covers?

    It downloads fine, but then I get an error every time I try to open it with Stuffit Expander.

    Help a dude out.

  • April 3, 2010

    Bile

    Works fine for me.
    Try winrar or winzip, I think Stuffit Expander might be the problem…

  • April 3, 2010

    The Count

    Problem solved.

    Thanks again for this post

    Many Hails!

  • April 8, 2010

    Anonymous

    I think the labeling on demo 5 is messed up. the last few tracks are labelled wrong because the lungfish song is in the same track as the monitors song. the last three should be:
    siouxie and the banshees, the stone roses, and sex gang children.

  • April 11, 2010

    Anonymous

    Greatly appreciated! Haven't been able to find a workable version of XV and don't think I was ever able to get the real Video Brolo either. Invaluble resource!

  • May 11, 2010

    Kazoth

    "Shadow Of No Light" – archive broken! The sixth track is not unpacked! Reapload please!

  • October 12, 2010

    Anonymous

    I would like to exchange links with your site http://www.lurkerspath.com
    Is this possible?

  • October 12, 2010

    Richard

    What's your website?

  • December 23, 2010

    666

    emmmmm the track lenght of the seventh song of demo three is not the same listed in the metal archives, was this taken from anethoer demo???

  • December 23, 2010

    Alex

    The listings on metal-archives have become confused and somewhat misplaced as numerous shitty leaks came about on file sharing programmes over the years. I got fed up of re-editing the list.

  • December 24, 2010

    666

    well yes that must be true, as almost everyone can update info on th page, so this demos are the real deal then???, cause I have three and VX, and the ones I have are far different from the ones you´ve posted here, if you like I can upload them and send the links to you, cause this whole thing about these demos is kind odd.

  • December 24, 2010

    Alex

    I am 99% sure these are all original. If you want to send me the uploads, go ahead!

    • January 1, 2011

      666

      here´s my version of demo three, this one has been circulating around the web since the last year me and my friend put it online, it lacks the last song but the lenght of the tracks is exactly the same as listed in every web site.

      http://www.mediafire.com/file/931ccfhal212b7s/Three.rar

      about XV I havent find it, yet maybe in some other boxes, I´ll let you know when I find it

  • August 24, 2011

    Cyrill

    If an “Sacrifice Love at the Altar of War” compilation, then from what demo last anonymous track?

  • October 11, 2012

    Ruptured Souls

    Hey, thanks for these. I’ve hunted out a couple of leviathans tapes / CDrs over the years and the many i couldn’t get hold of where on this site. I’ve noticed a few fakes floating around, so i really studied my collection, matching tracks titles, lengths etc. to the re-released versions on Demo’s 2000, Verrater, Howl Mockery, and the countless times he’s re-recorded tracks (even now on True Traitor, True Whore – Shed the Skin, Blood Red and True).
    Anyways, i worked out which versions i’d downloaded were correct, and which were made by kids putting together compilations of other demos tracks to say they had one that they didnt. (fucking irritating when that happens)

    I cannot remember which versions i downloaded from here… but i’ve noticed that every version of “Sacrifice Love at the Alter of War” seems to be wrong.

    There are many pictures of the tapes artwork online.
    Metal-archives suggests that it is a compilation of tracks from Demo 9 and 7. I think this is yet more mis-information, as the tracks seem to originate more from 9 and 10.
    I checked each song out, and this is what i came up with:
    Tracklisting on tape:
    1. Hanged Man
    2. Courtship of the Discarded
    3. Futility Dis-ease
    4. The Whole of Deceit
    5. Those Slimy Things Are Real
    ***
    6. Heiress of Worms
    7. Red Sands
    8. Just Under Tainted Grace
    9. Angelic Fece
    10. Shed This Skin

    On the Download:
    1. Intro* – From Demo 9
    2. Hanged Man* – From Demo 9
    3. Courtship of the Discarded – from Demo 9
    4 .Futility Dis-Ease – from Demo 9
    5. Unknown**
    ** The Whole Deceit (Demo 9) and Those Slimey Things Are Real (Demo 10) are missing, and in their place is this piece. It sounds a bit like Leviathan, but i’m unsure…

    6. Heiress of Worms – from Demo 10
    7. Red Sands – from Demo 10
    8. Just Under Tainted Grace – from Demo 10
    9. Angelic Fece – from Demo 10
    10. Shed the Skin – from Demo 7
    11. Unknown***
    ***and here is the ‘bonus track’ – which again, im unsure of. It sounds far more like something from Earth’s Hex than Leviathan. And theres no mention of it on the tapes tracklisting. It’s possible it is a bonus track, but i can’t be sure.

    * Many sites list Hanged Man as being the 2 minute intro, and Courtship as the 5 minute second track. In actual fact, Hanged man is 7:03 and consists of the 2 minute intro and the 5 minute BM track

    It just feels to me like someone wanted to put together the ‘missing’ Sacrifice Love tape, so took some tracks from Demo 9, 10 and 7, and then threw in the 5th and 11th tracks to make up the numbers so it looked like the right amount of tracks.

    I’d like to hear others thoughts. Or better still, find another copy in the net / a real tape with the tracklisting on the artwork.

    Anyways, keep up the great work with the site!

  • October 11, 2012

    Ruptured_Souls

    Adding to my earlier comment –
    I have a version of Video Brolo which starts with 5 instrumental tracks, and then tracks 2-6 from the real Video Brolo (track 1 is missing).

    The track on Sacrifice Love at the Altar of War which replaces ‘The Whole Deceit’ and ‘Those Slimey Things Are Real’ sounds EXACTLY like these ones.

    they are all instrumental, feedbacking guitar, electronic drumkits. But the drum sounds crisper, sharper and far more jazzy than any drumming on a Leviathan tape. Im guessing someone made up some demos with the tracks they had, and tracks by another artist maybe? I really don’t know who though. It could be Wrest… I know there is a heap of Lurker of Chalice stuff that hasn’t been released.
    But to me, it really puts the authenticity of the Sacrifice Love tape thats on the internet right now.

  • October 11, 2012

    Ruptured_Souls

    Looking on Metalstorms webzine, their review of Demo 8 give more clues.
    http://www.maelstrom.nu/ezine/review_iss55_4069.php?sid=1c171331afc6222c84dec952909256ca&section=3

    It seems that the longer version of Demo 8 (10 tracks) is correct. The shorter version has the last 5 tracks, and starts with “In This Slaveship” found on Verrater (not the Demo 7 version).

    So i don’t know where the short version of 8 came from. Maybe this is the fake, or maybe there are two alternative versions of it… One full version with 5 ambient tracks, and 5 re-recorded old tracks (more BM), And one version with just the re-recorded tracks, adding the “In This Slaveship” at the beginning.

    This then leads more questions about the version of Sacrifice Love that’s online. The tracklisting is wrong… but the additional track sounds similar to the tracks on Demo 8.
    So then the last track may be authentic too…

    Possibly an alternative version of Sacrifice Love, with two additional ambient tracks, but missing Whole Deceit and Slimy Things? the ambient track in the middle definitely isn’t on any other Leviathan or Lurker of Chalice releases. (or the bonus track)

  • October 11, 2012

    Ruptured_Souls

    FOUND IT!!!!

    The instrumental half way through the online version of Sacrifice Love is actually Somnolent from Demo 10!!!
    (how did i miss that one!)

    Which leads me to believe that there is a fake version of Sacrifice Love on the internet – and the dumb f*ck threw together the wrong tracks from Demos 9 and 10 respectively,
    …then possibly added the “bonus track” which i’m sceptical of.

    SO – after all that (sorry for spamming you good site!) – it appears that the version of Sacrifice that people are downloading is wrong, fake, and the bonus Untitled track is possibly also fake too. Shame. Its a good track, but sounds far more like Earth.

    I’m not sure which version of 8 you have up here, but it should have 10 tracks, not 6.

    Other than that, i’m happy that my Leviathan collection is now complete.

    Thats for your help in doing that.

    Regards,
    R_S

  • July 26, 2013

    Daniel

    MUCHOS GRACIAS!!!!

  • December 15, 2013

    idiot stroszek

    can somebody please reupload them?