England and Black Metal during the years 1992-1995; a time when Frater Nihil was busy making history with his Cacophonous Records. It was a period when email addresses didn’t exist, snail mail was the standard way to stay in touch or get demos, and when Cradle of Filth moved away from their Death Metal demo days to adopt a melodic and symphonic Black Metal sound, a move that proved highly lucrative. During that time, a few Cradle of Filth members went their own way with Hecate Enthroned and December Moon. You also had Bal-Sagoth with their unique take on Black Metal. And we shouldn’t forget The Fallen, who toured the UK with Emperor and Cradle of Filth despite having only one demo.
Alongside these acts, Thus Defiled was another name on the list. While the band name was taken from Venom’s ‘Possessed’, “Look at me Satans Child, born of evil thus defiled”, expressing their love for the Newcastle upon Tyne legends, all comparisons to the classic Cronos, Mantas, and Abaddon trio end there.
With ‘Blasphemous Coven’, and ‘Enchanted by the Dark One’, the Worthing, West Sussex band released two demos that, like early Cradle of Filth, were more like pure, sometimes grindin’, somtimes Doomy, Death Metal with raspy guttural vocals, rather than the Black Metal they are known for later on.
The album was released two years after the demos by Dark Trinity Productions, partly owned by Paul Carter, who handled vocals, guitars, and keyboards for Thus Defiled. According to him, many labels wanted to sign Thus Defiled, including a major label, but none of the deals were right. The only choice was to start their own label. In addition to this and the following album, they are remembered for releasing Denial of God’s ‘The Ghouls of DOG’, EP and a Buried Beneath compilation before the label shut down in 1998.
On their debut ‘Through the Impure Veil of Dawn’, you can hear the shift toward Melodic Black Metal, though the Death Metal past hasn’t been completely abandoned. The guttural vocals are still present, but are swapped more often for screams. The use of keyboards in the style of Cradle of Filth and Hecate Enthroned, along with up-tempo riffs, is also very much in the vein of Hecate Enthroned. This combination allows for different styles and approaches within a single track. Take the opener ‘Wings of Fallen Majesty’, as an example: on one hand, you hear that classic UK Melodic Black Metal of the era, while on the other, there’s a fast-paced passage similar to Sarcófago’s ‘Satanic Lust’. The shift to Black Metal is also clear through the visual side, as corpse-paint made its appearance.
Fortunately, they didn’t bring everything over from the demos, as that six-minute intro on ‘Blasphemous Coven’, wouldn’t have been to everyone’s taste…or patience. However, you can hear the unfolding of a direction Thus Defiled wanted to take, even while it was still in development. Simply put, typical UK Melodic Black Metal is there but in an unpolished form, which is perfectly audible in a song like ‘Dominus Luciferi’.
Dani Filth noted about that era that there weren’t many bands in the UK playing Black Metal, so it was a small group carrying the torch. Thus Defiled was certainly one of them.
