Artist: Eternal Darkness
Country: Brazil
Label: Millennium Nocturne Productions
Formats: CD
Year: 2025
As a lot of things in history, also the exact data and facts surrounding old and obscure recordings are veiled by the mists of time. So is the case with this Brazilian Black Metal band called Eternal Darkness. Depending on where you’re looking, ‘Kingdom Of Darkness’ is a demo tape, or maybe a collection of demo tracks, that was originally released in 2000. The actual tracks, however, are claimed to have been recorded a few years prior. But again, the exact date (or even year) is a bit uncertain, but just let’s keep it simple and say that it was recorded somewhere in the mid-90s. But regardless of the “where and when”-questions, these songs have now been unearthed and put to CD for a slightly wider release, some three decades later.
The label on duty is Millennium Nocturne Productions but the material was licensed from Angel Of Cemetery Records, which in turn is basically the same label as Millennium Nocturne Productions is a sub-label of Angel Of Cemetery Records. Not sure why things have I don’t know why everything has been deliberately made so complicated, but in a way it fits in with the equally unclear historical framework of this single demo of Eternal Darkness.
But it stands in the utmost contrast to the almost toe-curlingly simple Black Metal that has been pressed onto this silver disc. There is nothing cryptic or mysterious about Eternal Darkness’ take on Black Metal, nor is it original or even very good. The blueprint for the Brazilian’s is obviously Norwegian Black Metal and most specifically Burzum, Gorgoroth and Darkthrone. With basically every track revolving around one or two repeating riffs and a minimum of changing patterns in which the drummer’s shortcomings are particularly evident – I wouldn’t be surprised if he was just taken out of the high school rock band. Still, it is a certain charm. Everyone who was there to witness the development of the (rawer kind of) Black Metal scene in the mid- to late 90s has heard a ton of those demos. This is not really how it started, but what happened in the lower layers of the scene of bands feeding on the primal energy of their musical heroes. Charming, certainly, but I wonder whether this would be of interest to anyone other than the people who were involved with the band at the time and their immediate friends. ‘Kingdom Of Darkness’ might have some historical value, but even for those who like to take a deep dive into darkest and most obscure caverns of Black Metal’s past, this isn’t much of a lost gem.
