Whilst one-man Australian band Elysian Blaze’s demo Beneath Silent Faces, recently rereleased and reviewed here at Metal Reviews, was a slice of atmospheric weirdness like few others I’ve heard recently, you’d expect some changes to be made in the three years between that and the moment the band’s second album Levitating The Carnal is thrust into the world kicking and screaming like some nightmarish living afterbirth. Also rereleased on Osmose, it doesn’t take too many listens before you realise that Levitating The Carnal is more of the same style, if a little less obscure and with more piano this time around. The vocals are changed too, somewhere between the background howls of the demo and Burzumic snarls and gasps. It’s audibly at once more strident (Beyond The Shape Of Mortality) and more weird (Macabre Be Thy Blood) and has more of an Avant-Garde air to the songwriting, even though this is unmistakably Black Metal.

There’s something individualistic about Australian Black Metal, coming into its own in recent years what with the likes of Striborg making uncanny noises in the scene. Where others take influences from Punk, these bands seem perfectly happy despoiling the Funeral Doom genre for their influences, and the mixture’s often a compelling one, although like all Black Metal best taken in moderation. Both releases of Elysian Blaze that I have experienced so far are pretty unique in their impact, having a true atmospheric punch that picks you up and drops you into an abandoned churchyard at midnight. Levitating The Carnal is winning out in terms of quality, however, having more of a varied approach and being fantastically hard to get to grips with. Simply sitting back and shutting your eyes isn’t enough for once; here, you have to get emotional, using your imagination to help the music. Yes, here it comes: this can get a little dull at times. But if you’re ready and willing to give as much as you take, then Levitating The Carnal can be a rewarding listen, and as dominated as the genre is by Xasthur, this band is simply much better. Well worth investigating.