Intro (Prologue Writ On Terror'd Flesh)
To Mega Camon
Epiphany On An Ash Dipp'd Wing
Hymn Null
Birth In Upheaval
And Even The Archons Avert'd Their Eyes
Abhor Shun
Til A' The Oceans
Kosmocide
Outro (Egress)

Flood the Earth record label have released some corking music which I've had the utmost pleasure in reviewing during my days at Aural Pressure. Releases by Vinterriket, Northaunt, Karsten Hamre, and As All Die have received fair and warm praise from me. I've always tried to write exactly what I hear and to put it into simple words and phrases that everyone can understand. Which makes reviewing this latest release by that label even harder to write because, when all is said and done, I just couldn't get into it. As this will be the last release from that label to get reviewed I'm going to be more mellow than usual and put away my "Big book of swear words to insult everyone" (£5.99 from your local bookshop) and try and explain why this just didn't do it for me.

Black Metal. There you go. Two words that causes my hives to break out. Get me my cream mother. Aural Pressure reviews most material that falls into the spectrum of difficult / unusual / not to be found at Woolworths genres of music. Black Metal is not one of these. Black Metal is something that I will not have anywhere in my house. Not even the loft. It does not register with me in any shape or form. Which makes the decision by Flood the Earth to send this in for review even more bemusing. Like... you aren't going to convert the unconvertible. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. I hope you see where I'm going with this.

I've played it. Actually three times I've played it. I'm if nothing but fair. The good points then. 1: Good name for a group. Has a faint Latin feel to it. 2: Nice black cover with lovely glossy insert booklet with the words to the songs. 3: A great sample is used at the start of the first track over a nice thumping beat. 4: the group flirt ever so slightly into dark ambient territory, just not enough to save it. 5: You get ten tracks for your money. 6: The label gets the last point for actually sending out the full product in the first place and earns my respect for that alone.

I'll not list the bad points because I'll end up getting my book out and start cussing when I promised I wouldn't. Suffice to say that there are tons of guitar wailings over thumbing bass and rhythmic beats and scraggly vocals with an air of threat about them which head bangers dressed in black and wearing face paint will get off on. Or is that Goths I'm thinking of. So hard to distinguish nowadays. Anyway if you wear leather and have inverted crosses tattooed all over your body then "Vasa Iniquitatis" will be right up your alleyway / street / highway / wherever. You know who you are. This release is for you. Black Metal just as you like it I suppose. I‚m not, nor ever likely to be, up on that scene so can't really give it a thumbs up or down. As I'm being exceedingly nice for a change I'll end by saying that there's probably a lot worse recordings of this style out there, so maybe you should give this act a crack of the whip. By fuck you've caught me on a good day Flood the Earth records. Lucky old you.

ANM