Metal Reviews

Just finished:

If anything is perfection in scope and ambition, this is one of the few recordings that does exactly just that. Echoes of eternity and eternal twilight captured in notes, where all belongs to the night.

Just begun:

Authentic and thought-provoking.

Furious and melodious.

Dark romanticism in good taste with a noticeable absence of any significant and satisfactory metallic edge.

Finishing off:


Eloquent, austere, absorbing. Pure poetry in musical form.

Infuriated, diabolical, melancholic, imaginative, heavy as hell.

An all-time favourite. While Everything is Fire had a moist production, I find this album to be dryer, and a little rougher around the edges, making it heavier and gloomier, while maintaining its utmost heaviness. I find this recording and this band in general to be quite intriguing both in lyrical content, but more so in their musical ingenuity. Just my opinion, but I think fewer bands have been able to reach the heights of technicality, heavy abrasiveness, and metallic-ness (and dissonant melodious-ness), set aside for the likes of Deathspell Omega which is in the extreme minority (and perhaps the only one), anyway.

This recording never leaves my playing time completely, but it is certainly inspired this time around by my conversations with Mr. Steve. The sheer magnitude of heaviness, the clarity and the precision, the skull-fracturing whirlwind of riffage, and the organic nature, and moreover, the inspired vision of Nergal is remarkably breathtaking. It still sounds fresh to my ears, until this very day.

^^That album is massive.



I don't think there is inherently anything fundamentally negative about this album. Behemoth have a much more clear production, the riffing is much better organized and has a greater sense of distance and dynamical variety. The drums sound a lot more clear and pronounced, the bass is punchier and crispier, and Nergal sounds like he's been to hell and back again. I personally think Nergal's musical ideas are more progressive throughout the entire recording. This album is rockier and more energetic, and the layering and the texturing are more appropriate than the previous album, and yet it still maintains an evolutionary mind-set in tact.

A grand proclamation of absolute orthodoxy in BM sophistication and refinement. From the album cover, to the lyrical theme, to the sheer complexity and incalculable willingness to construct such a vortex of technical blackness to this degree of genuine negativity and annihilation, mandates the highest praise for anyone attracted to this kind of extreme art. A landmark and milestone for many years to come, no doubt. Scintillating and oozing with originality.