Mighty Hails to y'all,
Oh, the perks of moving.... (sigh). The best thing about packing is that one comes across an abundant series of interesting things, which one may have completely forgotten about. Things that for one reason or another did not catch one's attention to be relevant enough to make it around the house. Either way, I enjoy encountering random little surprises, just like the one I am about to tell you.
As I was packing my music collection, I found a little envelope with a rather discolored cover, which includes an agonizing Jesus, some skulls, I guess there is a drawing of a hypothetical Satan, some eyes, a tribal and another Jesus... among other things. This interesting record is called Death Knell Compilation, and it was released in 2001 through Eternal Night Records from Ibague, Colombia. This album comprises an array of great songs originating from many places in the world. As a matter of fact, I tried to look up a few of the featured songs online and failed miserably (if it ain't on YouTube, it's a relic!). One thing: Do not let the name fool you. Even though the album is promoted as a DM compilation, it contains a great deal of Thrash and Black Metal. Regardless of genre, all the songs are at the same level of atrocity.
The record hits it off with a classic Colombian DM band called Agony, and a beautiful song from their 2002 Reborn called Sacred. WAY to start off a freaking Metal compilation! It brought back tons of memories from when I created Latin Distortion back in 2007. Songs like Sacred were the reason behind the show's existence. That right there, fellow reader, was the beginning of the Golden Age of Metal in my life (sigh). As the album progresses, one encounters bands like Dysanchely, Tombe, Denata, Incinerator, Horfixion (proudly Made in Canada), Festerguts, Stormcrow, Warlust, Nefarium, Abomination, Mithras, Throneum, Hatework, and last but certainly not least, Prosapia. There is a band that I did not include in the list, since I was really blown away by their contribution to this album. They are a legendary BM band from Neumagen-Dhron, Germany, who came to live about 22 years ago under the Name of Ancient Ceremony. 
The band hit it off quite well and started gaining some serious popularity among the metal scene in Europe, where they had the opportunity to interact within the same circles as bands like In Flames, Absu and Impaled Nazarene, among others. Years later, the band was playing with some of the greatest metal acts of the time, such as Moonspell, Therion and Dimmu Borgir just to mention a few. Like many other Satanic-influenced acts, Ancient Ceremony did not the survive attacks from the Catholic Church, who protested in 2003 after the band got confirmed to play in one of Germany's largest Metal festivals. Ecclesiastic authorities forced the government to ban the band's act, as they argued that it would openly spread blasphemy and promote Satanism. Havoc broke because of the early release of their album entitled "P.uritan's B.lasphemy C.all (Ruf-Mord)", whose acronym spells PBC; that being the name of a radical Christian party in Germany. For this reason, many record labels refused to distribute the band's material due to fears of controversy. Given that there is no rest for the wicked, this religious persecution went as far as to sue the band's vocalist, Chris Anderle, but for the sake of everyone's sanity, nothing really happened and the very controversial album eventually got released through Irond Records in '06. Unfortunately the band disbanded back in 2005 and ever since then, no one has heard anything about them. Until today.... which is when I came across their song on the Death Knell Compilation, Crowned Child and as I mentioned before, it blew my skin away. I am glad to be able to share it with you on this not so sunny afternoon.
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