Reading description of Lych Milk from Zebadiah Crowe promosheet you don’t entirely know what to expect. If you are not familiar with the UK band’s earlier discography, the promise/threat of “going back to hell” and “we warned you” may fall onto deaf ears. Which black metal doesn’t threaten the same? Yet the duo standing behind this rather strange moniker is not kidding. And Lych Milk is indeed a journey to a place rather unpleasant, albeit short.

Opening with a walking talking beast from some subterranean tunnel Gallows Wood is almost a textbook exhibit how something profoundly non-melodic can be undeniably catchy. Gallows Wood opens its filthy maw slowly, but out spill the rushing rhythms of programmed drums and you are drawn to these hammering fast repeating chords like moth to fire. Sabbaticus moves between more measured hammering and blast bursts, while revealing the variety of screeches, howls and yowls, all ghostly and remote, the voices of evil in multiple incarnations. The industrial and unrelenting pounding continues on Footprints, with some angled steely sound added to the guitars. Sure Lych Milk is short, not even 11’ long, but I have had a fill of it almost immediately, and not sure I could take it for much longer. If music like this goes on forever it may actually lose its impact.

Fear is indeed the word synonymous with the sound of Zebadiah Crowe. It isn’t artificial, but palpable instead. Strong undergirding of programmed drums may invoke an industrial attribute for the band, but this is definitely not symphonically inclined. A significantly more brutal Abigor without regard for the outwardly shape, and less smoothly produced than Anaal Nathrakh, the fans of these outfits should be taking a listen.