In the Glare of Burning Churches collects impressively raw and poorly recorded demos released in the early '90s by Polish black metal band
Graveland. Barely passing for demo quality, the harsh recordings are characterized by brittle tin-can drums that drift between off-time lurches and pulverizing blastbeats, vocalist Rob Darken's ghoulish howls, and low-end free walls of shrill guitar and synth. The ghastliness of these demos is in line with some of the most far-reaching black metal of the era, and the low fidelity ultimately helps foster the collection's morbidly creepy vibe, especially when contrasting moments like the ambient synth interlude "Instrumental" and ominous church organ segue "The Dark Dusk Abyss" break up the demonic black metal compositions. ~ Fred Thomas