DAI

***After releasing a series of demos between 1989 and 1992, DAI received an offer to record a full-length album for the Czech label, Monitor Records. Started a few years earlier, Monitor was extremely prolific, mostly focusing on Czech rock and punk bands, but it ventured into metal with releases such as the Ultrametal compilation in 1990, Ritual by Master’s Hammer in 1991, and various thrash bands such as Debusterol, V.A.R., and Krabathor. By 1993, Monitor was the preeminent label for extreme music in the newly formed Czech Republic, working with other significant bands like Torr and Root. DAI entered the studio in the summer of 1992 to record what would be the band’s only full-length release, the monumental album The Advent. Released in 1993 on CD and tape, The Advent is wildly eccentric. As if viewing the death and black metal produced in northern and western Europe through some kaleidoscopic distortion, DAI produced a uniquely unconventional work, the oblique sensibilities of which rivaled the contemporaneous works of Master’s Hammer. Indeed, had DAI continued releasing music, the two bands would likely occupy similar stations in the history of black metal. Instead, following the release of The Advent, DAI disappeared, leaving behind a concise but distinctive catalog. And given the extreme rarity of the demos, few people outside of the former Czechoslovakia likely ever heard the demos preceding the album. Consequently, DAI mostly remained an obscure curiosity known primarily to collectors. This new edition marks the first reissue of The Advent since its initial release almost 30 years ago. This new version also features five previously unreleased studio tracks, which are among the band’s most experimental.