Bestial Summoning

Not known for its black metal, the Netherlands has nevertheless produced some really amazing bands. I absolutely love Unlord, for example, for their raw, in-your-face, blisteringly fast style, and Urfaust's recent work is otherworldly and transcendent while still remaining firmly within the black metal genre. But a lot of early Dutch black metal bands have flown under the radar and were really only known to hardcore fans or those who obsess over every facet of the genre. The highly influential BESTIAL SUMMONING, from the city of Venlo, is one such band.

Formed in 1990 by band members Conscicide, Sephiroth, and The Unsane, Bestial Summoning cited some of the darker and more evil elements of the 1980s black metal underground as their influences: Blasphemy, Sarcofago, Holocausto, and even the recently-formed Beherit. The Satanic bastards of Bestial Summoning were utterly devoted to creating nasty, raw, evil music in the black metal style.

In the early months of their existence, they jammed a few times and even had a few recorded rehearsals circulate as bootlegs. These are extremely difficult to find and I am only aware of one rehearsal ever making it onto a CD: the "Black Rites (Sinister Ritual)" rehearsal, which was a one-song rehearsal from 1990.

This is just a snippet of a 1990 jam session 

Bestial Summoning's rawness in their style was partially due to their DIY ethos--it is said that most of their music is the result of improvisation. After some other noteworthy rehearsal sessions (including one that eventually made it onto the 2008 split with Heretic, Splitting Skulls With Satan), Bestial Summoning put out a demo, Sodomistic Rituals, that quickly became well-known in the darkest circles of the black metal underground.

In its entirety, here is the 1991 demo

The waves that this demo made in the underground led to interest from some pretty noteworthy extreme metal labels, among them the Swedish label No Fashion. The members of Bestial Summoning personally knew the men of No Fashion Records, so that is who they chose to sign with. This led to the release of their one and only full-length album, The Dark War Has Begun.

Off of the full-length The Dark War Has Begun, this is "Victory is Ours"

By admission of the band themselves, their style was more controlled, less chaotic on their full-length album. They still relied heavily upon improvisation, but elements of structure were present in ways that simply were not there on the demo material. That said, Bestial Summoning's trademark rawness was still in full-force on Dark War. In early 1990s black metal,bands tended to polish their sound more and more as they emerged from the underground. This was simply not the case with Bestial Summoning.

They didn't last long after this full-length---just long enough for them to put out an official live tape (known as the "Live in Venray" tape), and for a couple of other bootlegs to surface. But by this time, their mark had been made. Their material has re-surfaced a couple of other times--most recently in the form of a 2008 compilation--thus showing how important they were in the underground.

Select Discography:

"Black Rites (Sinister Ritual)" (rehearsal track) (1990)

Sodomistic Rituals (demo) (1991)

The Dark War Has Begun (full-length) (1992)

Official Live Tape (Live in Venray) (1992)

Next time: EMINENZ