Nirvana 2002 - Recordings 89-91

Nirvana 2002 is one of the most legendary bands ever; that's the fact that no one should deny otherwise he may get seriously hurt. It's almost weird, as originally the band lasted only three years before disbanding in 1991. During that time they composed only few songs and recorded two official recorings. But all that was enough to place them in history. I must be honest with you - they recorded one of THE BEST death metal songs ever ("Mourning") and basically have better songs than anything Entombed has ever done. In my opinion, if they haven't split up, we would be mentioning their debut album together with "Left Hand Path" and "Dark Recollections". Nice, huh? As for myself, Nirvana 2002 was quite mysterious band for years. I knew the name, I also knew them from "Projections of a Stained Mind", but until very late I never had a chance to get their demo. I was tape / CDR trading for years, but none of my friends had this band in their collection. Only few years ago I finally got it and now I'm also very, very happy that Relapse released this compilation album. I'm even more than happy to own one of 500 black vinyls!

The layout for this gatefold LP is just excellent. Huge old band photo in the middle of the gatefold looks nice, but the inlay is what everyone should look at. Loads of old photos and the liner notes from Tomas Lindberg and Orvar Safstrom are just brilliant. We also get all the lyrics, what is just amazing, as well as detailed info about each recording that appears on this compilation. As a fan, I cannot imagine anything more to get. This is what a perfect compilation album should have. Great work! Also, it's an excellent idea to take a photo in the same area and pose as 20 years earlier. The guys look older, the hair are not necessary as long as they used to be, but it's good to see their faces again.

Music wise there's more than enough to satisfy every Swedish death metal maniac. We basically get ALL Nirvana 2002 songs ever recorded. Starting with the classic "Mourning" from the compilation album, through "Disembodied Spirits" demo and "Promo 1991" and rehearsal songs from 1990/91, as well as one track recorded live at Kafe 44, January 2007, when the band played gig for the first time ever in their history for the famous release party of "Swedish Death Metal" book. And these songs fuckin shred. As I already said earlier, Nirvana 2002 had better songs than Entombed, that's enough to recommend them. "Disembodied Spirits" is one of the most aggressive and excellent demos ever and "Promo 1991" is even better, as the production of Sunlight Studio on this recording is simply fantastic and one of the best Skogsberg has ever done. These guys had amazing skills in composing catchy, but damn aggressive and obscure sounds and Orvar Safstrom, who did an amazing job on Entombed's "Crawl", was one of the best vocalists on that scene. Side A of the vinyl deserves to build an altar and honestly, I love it. Songs like "Mourning" and "Further Beyond" are 100% classics and if someone decide to play it on my funeral, please do it. On top of all that "Disembodied Spirits" is presented in two versions; an original one and with 2009 mix. Man, that new mixing gave it a blast as hell, it's even better now than it was.

As for the rehearsal and live recordings... Well, it's cool to listen to them of course, but let's be honest. The sound quality on these songs is either bad or very bad and it may horrid some of you, but who cares. It's still listenable, not as good as side A of course, but an integral part of this band's history, and as such it deserves its place on this compilation. Besides, it's better anyway than such cheating as those bonus live songs on Asphyx re-releases that came out recently, which are not listenable at all and as such are just pure fuckin rip off (at least for those, who own original pressings and bough also the re-release to get the live songs...). Good thing is that those rehearsals bring also songs that weren't included on the demo and promo, so it's another good reason to listen to them.

Finally the vinyl also includes a download card, if you want to legally download the album on mp3. If you want to know what I think about it, fuck that! I have a vinyl, why would I bother to listen to mp3??? If you have diamonds, you don't wear plastic jewelry, right? Perfect release, anyway! And I'll repeat myself, what a shame they never did an album! Now I hope they never will.
Final rate: 95