In the woods-HEart of the ages 2xLP Test pressing

I used to like a bit of Black metal in the mid 90’s. Actually it had to come out of Norway otherwise it somehow didn’t feel authentic to me. This was just after the murder of Euronymous by that Burzum dude. For a short time it did really feel pretty evil. Of course this was before black metal became acceptable by the hipster wankers and for the most part it was shunned by nearly everyone except a few die hards-even the majority of the rest of the metal community seemed to keep their distance. Anyway truth be told I rarely listen to much of that stuff anymore but two albums I always seem to go back to are ‘battles in the north’ by Immortal and ‘Heart of the ages’ by In the woods.


Actually this strictly speaking isn’t what a lot of folks classed as pure black metal-sure this lot were from Norway and certainly had their roots in that scene and had at times certain parts in their music which could be definitely considered as black metal sounding but there was a lot more going on. I remember listening to this for the first time and knowing that I tuning into something unique and very special. The opening track was proof that this was going to be a rich and progressive musical journey. By the time the band had done their second album (‘Omnio’) the black metal influences had pretty much vanished altogether. That’s one album that’s still nearly impossible to categorise to this day.

So back to this album-I just had the CD but always fancied the vinyl but never seemed to track down a copy for a reasonable price. Of course, it’s gone up in value so the chances of me picking one up without paying through the nose are pretty slim. I caught this test pressing on the bay and decided to jump on it. Often outside of hardcore (sXe in particular) test pressings don’t seem to go for as much, odd that! So I got this less than half of the going rate for the original on misanthropy records. Only this is actually a repress by back on black that hasn’t been released yet. I’m not sure how many this is limited to but I’m guessing around 10-20 copies being a UK issue. The sheet with it says that it’s on purple vinyl but this is black obviously. Hopefully this will turn out to be the only black vinyl version making it super rare and exclusive. That said I still want the regular double vinyl (whatever colour it comes out on), for the packaging etc. And damn it I still want an original.

I still get goose bumps listening to this now. 16-17 years later and it’s still some mind bending shit.