A stopgap EP released mid-2008, Landfill Breastmilk Beast is a mixture of the first two Cobalt albums, the catchy riffing of War Metal and the strange otherworldliness of Eater Of Birds combined in three very different tracks. Opening song Stomach starts melodically before launching into the band’s trademark riff-heavy assault, a discordant Thrashiness noticeable in the Punkish mixture. It’s as viciously violent as you’d expect, the vocals still rabidly furious, the guitars riffing hard and almost catchy at times as they combine Doom, Black and Prog. As ever, it’s hard to believe that Cobalt are American, their brand of Black Metal a curiously hard-hitting style that we’re more used to hearing from Pagan realms, but once the moment in Stomach arrives where a noticeably twisted Country influence comes in, it’s obvious where the band call home.

Nausea cover Extinction shows off the band’s Hardcore Punk influences well, starting almost exactly like Metallica’s One before the track kicks off and tribal drumming backs Thrash riffing that moves in and out of Sludge territory, a neat little solo closing things off. The last track, Ritual Use Of Fire, in several ways the most interesting, is a thirty-minute instrumental piece, what the Ambient soundscapes that broke up Eater Of Birds were taken from. It’s a strange piece of music, long periods of near-silence with the faintest percussion echoing in the background, electronic effects, growls, scraping, general weirdness all around, turning to acoustic Americana towards the end. It’s one of those pieces that you’re never quite sure how to react, whether genius or the complete opposite, but it’s an interesting look at another string to the band’s bow.

With third full-length Gin nearly upon us, it’s worth revisiting the first two albums. Cobalt are quite unique in the Black Metal scene in several ways, not despising Tool and having a member whose attachment to war is more real and valid than most posers around (vocalist/guitarist Phil McSorley is on station in Iraq at the time of speaking) being just two. Stomach’s inclusion here, being the first track to be unveiled from Gin, hopefully foretastes yet another excellent album from this interesting duo.