Deus Otiosus - Murderer (2010)

Murderer might only be the first full-length output from Denmark's Deus Otiosus (Withdrawn God), but the band's members have a fair amount of collective experience in other acts like Cerekloth, Hideous Invasion, and the speed/thrashers Victimizer. If you've heard some of those groups, then you'll know that these gentlemen prefer an old school approach to composition, and Murderer is no exception. This is primitive, riff-based death metal with a slight influence from thrash and hardcore, but the guitars and gutturals have an immense amount of punch to them, and they thankfully avoid the trendy, cavernous crawl-core or the outright Swede worship for something more along the lines of Bolt Thrower, Asphyx, or Unleashed with a few traces of their own countrymen Exmortem and Panzerchrist.

I love my riffs, and fortunately so does this band, because each song throttles the listener with at least a few memorable hooks in between some of the simpler, brickhouse punk explosions that provide the framework for excitement. I do feel that the album is front-loaded with most of its better material. For example, "I Have Seen Him Slay" is a swell starting point that showcases everything this band is about: concrete drumming, efficient leads, and copious guitar tone that pummels the note progressions over the top. "Thousand Arms of the Dead" opens with a gut wrenching, war-thrashing riff, and both its closing moments and the entire following track "Wall of Violence" are exhibitions of double bass driven violence. "Ye Pigs of Little Faith" is also a standout on the album, surging between thick thrash chops and moody, plunking bass sequences as it attempts to draw some atmosphere into what is otherwise a level, straightforward sound.

Later on, though, I found some of the material to waver in quality, if not consistency. "Whore Limbs" is a taut death tune with a good breakdown in the bridge, but I didn't get much out of the track "No Life" outside of the bridge/lead. Nor did I really get into the slower bombastic gait of "Ash World", mighty as it might sound. The title track, with rounds out the album, is decent if forgettable, with some pretty uninteresting riffage in the verse and bridge. Of course, writing in such a straightforward style is pretty difficult, since by this day and age so many of the riffs will always feel as if they've been done before, but Deus Otiosus go some lengths to compensate with the loud, rousing production of the record. In all, this is tight execution of 90s death metal serial killer fundamentals with a brawny energy about it that shows some promise. Not entirely original, perhaps, but they lay on the muscle in their tone and dodge a few of the cliches that are currently in overabundance.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.myspace.com/deusotiosus

Lantlôs - Agape (2011)

If ennui were a muse, then surely Lantlôs were suckled to its cunt throughout the production of their third album, Agape, which is little more than a dissertation on how to lack even a shred of inspiration or riffing ability. This German-French collaboration was hardly one to write home about on their last two full-lengths, but there they have surpassed themselves to reach the summit of banal shoegazing post black metal which is wrought of such worthless characteristics that it stuns me anyone could enjoy it. Don't get me wrong: I listen to some Sonic Youth, Joy Division, Hum, My Bloody Valentine and so forth, and even a few of the sludgier post-metal acts that have also inspired this one (I hear a tinge of Neurosis and Isis, at the very least). I have no problem with bands exploring this avenue of sound. But Agape is as dry as a desert. Not emotionally draining, nor emotionally incandescent, nor really much of emotional anything. It's like watching a snail crawl across your boot, and feeling no impetus to either help it along or hasten its passage to the mollusk afterlife...

I wish I could blame Neige for this one, but really there doesn't seem to be anything he could do to fix it. For most of the proceedings, he drones along with the same vapid black rasp you hear in hundreds of other sludge and post-black outfits. There are points at which he goes into a cleaner vocal, and when this happens it's at a lower pitch, not the dreamier style he attempts on some of the Alcest material. Sure, none of the vocals here are even the slightest bit memorable, but had they at least been graced with a solid musical undercurrent, they would suffice. No, the fault here lies entirely with the writing of the music, which attempts to contrast itself between fits of tremendously derivative, uninspired riffing and tranquil, soothing passages where clean guitars pluck along with a lightness that equivocates to how much impact they have upon the listener. About the best I could say for the guitars on this album is that they clearly demonstrate a shift between cold, desolate minimalism and warmer, full-bodied streams of dissonance, but it's not praise when the note progressions are so void of musical value.

For instance, let's examine the first track, and the most swollen: "Intrauterin" opens with two minutes of swelling, ambient feedback before collapsing into this droning, dull riff which anchors itself on a bottom end chord and then some wailing, bending inanity. Then at about 4 and a half minutes in it changes completely to this transitive, clean passage with twinkling little acoustic stars and softly droning background tones in a higher pitch. I bring this up because it's possibly the one point on the promo that I did not want to delete. Neige applies some lower vocals to this in a fairly barren fixation, and then the highly predictable segue into slow tremolo shoegaze riff arrives on queue, with Neige picking up the intensity to his standard, grisly rasp. I feel like I just spent about 50 seconds wading in mediocre weightlessness and 9 more in the most boring aural environs imaginable, only vaguely adequate even as background noise.

Unfortunately, this is not just a one-off fluke. Agape does not improve the deeper you get into its infertile valleys. "Bliss" is a far heavier track in general with a steady substrate of simple chords smothered in harsh vocals and an empty melodic sheen, but despite its own breakdown toward tranquility it is 100% forgettable. "Bloody Lips and Paper Skin" has some appreciable backing ambiance, yet the first two minutes sound like a Sonic Youth sound check, if Thurston Moore plugged in and strummed the most unassuming series of notes and chords available, and the bass heavy, Hum-like core of the song is sadly no more climactic. "You Feel Like Memories" is the obligatory instrumental, and this one is all spacious, minimal clean guitars with a steady pump of bass and tinny percussion that drive it along to its aimless end. The finale, "Eribo - I Collect the Stars" is all big shining, crashing nothingness that fades out with a distorted bass drone, but I'll admit that the mid point with the melodic, bluesy arching 'lead' is probably one of the highlights, even if nothing is really happening...

And that is Agape in a nutshell. Nothing happens. Nothing of interest, anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out this was all improvisational, because most musicians I know can write more involved music than this in their sleep, regardless of their genre of expertise. I guess the point of such a thing as this album is to revel in its own misery, flirt with its own broad swath of emptiness, but in this case, nothing is rewarded to the listener, not even in a negative sense. Even at it's most climactic peaks of harried, atonal energy, the album seems as horizontal as a board. .Neon and their s/t debut at least showed a few signs of potential, but this feels as if all hope were truly lost, and that the musicians were just going to plug in and play whatever comes to mind without any concern for lasting quality. Hell, next to this album, other related acts like Alcest and Heretoir sound like virtual cornucopias of passion. Not the worst album I've heard, but certainly one of the biggest bummers of this year. Come on, snap out of it! You lot can do better than this.

Verdict: Fail [3/10]

http://www.lantlos.com/

Drowning the Light - Oceans of Eternity (2011)

I can't help but think that the horned, bestial skull on the cover of this new Drowning the Light album is confirming what the title and oceanic backdrop openly hint: we will soon be sailing on a sea of oblivion, every last shred of living flesh stripped from us. And it's remarkable that the Australians have actually captured just this aesthetic here, on what is clearly one of their most melodic and chilling efforts to date. Intense, streaming tremolo lines are hurled in layers of blood-bright gloss at the listener while the vocals offer up libations of glorious, nihilistic grime that seem intentionally lo fi to the point that some of the deeper growls often squelch within the mix. Surely, Oceans of Eternity is abrasive, and I felt that its earlier half was somewhat monotonous, but the dour, emotional climax of its final third helps round this out into another success for these fiends.

Coming off Catacombs of Blood, which I believe to be their strongest album at least that I've actually heard, one might really expect that Drowning the Light had finally hit their stride, and now would come the responsibility to maintain it. I wouldn't place odds on this album over that in a fistfight, but what I admire is the band's ability to shift visual and lyrical aesthetics into different terrains and themes while never abandoning their harrowing, feral grasp. Tracks like the titular "Oceans of Eternity" and the pummeling "Cataclysmic Cycle of Renewal" give the aural impression of some vast open horizon of ghouls, the wind blowing in their tattered remnants of hair and garb while they crash towards some briny abyss. There's nothing unusual about how Azgorh composes his material; the riffs are drawn directly from the Scandinavian second wave legends like Immortal, Enslaved, and the like, yet Drowning the Light seems even more glaring and apologetic about the constant use of melody here.

I also quite love the clean guitar sequences here, like "Drifting Away in a Sea or Sorrow" or the very end of "Cataclysmic Cycle...", or the cheesy but amazing synthesized choir textures the band whips up for the latter half of "The Poison Kiss", which is coincidentally one of the best songs here, along with the hypnotic "Oppression & Tyranny" and the punishing finale "The Runes Are Thrown & The Bones are Spread (A Hymn to the Apocalypse)". While a few of the pieces on the earlier half of the record seem rather one-track in their execution, and I felt like I could only take so much of the band's windy, reverb-strewn faster melodies and tortured, Burzum-like vocals in a row, there is certainly strength on this album to satiate those who seek a consistent, atmospheric experience, and if you're into fellow Australians like Atra, Ill Omen, Erebus Enthroned and the like then you'll most certainly want to give this a spin.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

http://www.myspace.com/drowningthelight

Farsot - Insects (2011)

Farsot is one of the more esoteric, progressive black metal artists hailing from Germany in recent years, though I wouldn't dub them all that experimental or chaotic. They're known for balancing a well produced, traditional sound with several outside influences like folk and perhaps a tint of psychedelia, and their 2007 debut IIII utilized numerous ambient interlude tracks to break up the grislier pieces. With Insects, their sophomore through Lupus Lounge, I believe they've developed a stronger, more distinct sense of style to them which shines through in the songwriting, both in the value of their individual riffs and the overall consistency of the composition.

Perhaps my favorite element here is the bass, and how it swerves and grooves below the shining black sparks of the guitars to create this somber, engrossing haze that almost seems like a 'casual' contrast to the more serious, thrashing rhythms of the guitars. This is especially true of the opener, "Like Flakes of Rust" and the eerie, mesmerizing bridge of "Withdrawl". In truth, I don't find a lot of the core riffs here to be all that satiating, but the exceptions almost make up for their general lack of appeal. For example, "Like Flakes of Rust" has a lot of dull, predictable mute thrashing that leads up to this heavily atmospheric sequence at the 6 minute mark; and the disjointed, choppier rhythms of "Empyrean" take the passenger seat to the special effects and soothing, skyward vocals.

On several cuts, the band departs from metal altogether, like the tranquil and inviting acoustic instrumental "7" or the downward sloping mood-rock of the closer "Somnolent", but these are both well written enough and fit the color and atmosphere of the heavier works. The production and musicianship are all top notch; although they're never really playing any heavily complex, they get such a clean, polished edge to the material that accents its dynamic range. The vocals are admittedly pretty average, but they do incorporate cleans and backing vocals for variation. I also felt that a few of the tracks had a little fat to trim, as there were moments in the 10 minute "Empyrean" and 8 minute "Adamantine Chains" where attentions started to slip. In all, though, I'd say this readily tops their debut IIII, and the curious aesthetics on play might damn well appeal to fans of other, more progressive German bands of the niche including Secrets of the Moon, Klabautamann, Fyrnask, Kathaaria and Fjoergyn.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://www.farsot.de/

Outrage - Go to Hell (2011)

There have got to be a dozen or more bands with the Outrage brand name, and yet these Germans have shared the handle with the once great Japanese band for perhaps the longest stretch. Formed way, way back in 1983, they were a demo level act who took a huge hiatus until the 21st century, then suddenly kicked off a productive streak that involved no less than five self-released records from 2004-2010! You'd think most bands might give up by that point, but not this Outrage: they are stubborn as hell and quite competent at what they do, which is a mix of straight old school speed/thrash with vocals and lyrical concepts that place them slightly into that same black/death metal category that spawned Venom, Bulldozer and more recently bands like Sweden's Bewitched.

The premise is simple: play music that sounds like a serial killer or cultist is stalking the listener through a foggy, dark night in a city of brick, smoke and offal. The guitar tone sounds enormous, even if the riffs being flogged out are all quite simple and derivative of hundreds of speed, thrash and heavy metal acts over the span of decades. I am not going to lie about it: there are not many guitar progressions on this album that are all that thrilling, but the actual sound and execution here definitely highlight the experience of their creator (Udo F, 'The Bringer of Doom'). What's more, the vocals of 'The Voice of Hell' Frank P are nothing more than brutal and bloodied barks which feel like a rabid dog biting at your heels as if they were kittens. That is, until he emits the hilarious shrieks that often turn up at the ends of vocal lines.

Point in case, the song "Astaroth" where he bounces back and forth during the chorus over the Hallows Eve-like mid-paced riff. Admittedly, this is a bit goofy sounding, and not as manic as something Tom Araya might have issued forth in his halcyon days; but there are certainly a lot of fans of old thrash or speed metal who will enjoy the contrast without doubling over in laughter. I was not one of them, at least not on this track, but it could have been worse. There are certain songs here that I actually enjoyed quite a lot, like the arena-sounding rush of "The Inner Contract", Hellhammer machismo of "Into the Abyss of Belial" or the thundering, faster paced follies of "Slave Trader" and "Refugee to Beyond". But the rest straddle the lines between average and only mildly enticing, and most of the leads on the album competent but forgettable.

In summation, I can't say that I loved or really enjoyed Go to Hell, but neither did I dislike it. There is a market for this sort of sound, and obviously its progenitors love it a great deal, so fans of early Hallows Eve (Tales of Terror), Slayer (Show No Mercy), Sodom or the more brute, recent works of British legends Venom might get something more out of the album, especially when one takes into consideration that most of the tracks here were written in the 80s and are being polished up here from their demo incarnations (which are also available on a new comp the band has out).

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

http://www.outrage-band.net/

Battlerage - True Metal Victory (2011)

Chile is not the first place that comes to mind when one thinks in terms of epic heavy/power metal outfits, but Battlerage seeks fervently to buck that trend, or the lack thereof, with one of the more competent and entertaining releases of its type that I've heard in several months. Now, True Metal Victory is an album that succeeds despite itself. As you can tell, the title and likely lyrical themes are the sort of generic metal banner-waving we've come to expect from the Manowar camp and all who followed it. Admittedly, this is a fraction cheesy, especially in conjunction with Fox-Lin Torres' heavy accent on the vocals, but in the end Battlerage wins out by writing hymns that are aggressive, melodic and memorable.

The closest comparison one will make upon hearing Torres' grumbling, constipated tone would be to Kris Boltendahl of the German legend Grave Digger. When this guy crunches down, his style is almost inseparable, with the exception of the different, yet equally potent accent. But he's also no one- trick pony, attempting some cleaner and higher pitched lines to complement his monstrous, thundering anger. They don't always sound entirely in pitch and he doesn't have the widest range, but he compensates with a lot of character. Musically, the band surrounding him creates a wonderful hybrid of Omen and Manowar dowsed in tinges of German influences like Accept, Grave Digger and Running Wild, and they do it with both flair and drama. The instrumentals like the Omen-ish intro "Battlepath" and the dual doom-melodies of "Stygian" are perfectly placed to divide the vocal anthems, and the production is abrupt, crunchy where it needs to be, and straight in the listener's face. Old school wolves in sleek, modern sheeps' fur.

It's pretty difficult to resist the headbanging madness of "Return of the Axeman" or the muggy, thrashed out parade of "Raw Metal" and "Warlock's Epitaph", even if half the vocal lines do make you feel like cracking up. The leads are generally very catchy, the guitar tone rich and up front, without ever been snuffed out due to the vocals. Battlerage do not bother with symphonic elements: they let the guitars monopolize the melodies while the rhythm section turns in a rock solid foundation. But don't expect frenetic pacing or complexity here circa Gamma Ray or Blind Guardian, these Chileans level the ground with big, muted riffs and simpler structures that fit more accordingly with the bold tales of battle, and metal, and...battle, and more metal. That might sound quite familiar, and in fact there's not a lot here to quality Battlerage as original, especially in the lyrical themes, but True Metal Victory is at least an entertaining rush of fist shaking, axe wielding mayhem that you can sing along to at a party with your friends.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/battleragetruemetal

Temple of Baal/Ritualization - The Vision of Fading Mankind (2011)

The Vision of Fading Mankind serves as a showcase for two of the brighter, more promising bands on the French underground, even if their individual sounds don't have a terrible lot in common. Of the two, Temple of Baal are the more experienced, having about 13 years below their belts, three full-lengths and various other splits and demos. On the other hand, this was my first exposure to the group Ritualization, who had one demo that was re-issued through Iron Bonehead on LP, which I sadly missed. This happens pretty often, that I'll probably never have the time to search through the demo reels and cover all full-length albums simultaneously, and through the years I've simply found the latter more rewarding.

Digressions aside, the Temple of Baal contribution to this split is a quartet of tracks that are consistent with their most recent full-length, Lightslaying Rituals, which I have also reviewed. They bring a dense, ominous guitar tone in here which immediately lends itself to a striking, corpulent atmosphere beneath which they alternate rapid tremolo black metal sequences with jaw clenching double bass passages and chugging mute grooves, while the vocals dance between growls and snarls. Nothing subtle about what this band does, they simply bring the fucking clobber straight to the listener's personal space and don't even bother to dust up the ashes, and I'm sure tunes like "When Mankind Falls" and "Slaves to the Beast" are bound to be the roots of numerous lawsuits in the near future, so pit-friendly and punishing they are. One of their songs here, "Heresy Forever Enthroned" is a bit over-inflated at 9:40, but in the band's defense they vary this one up almost enough that you don't notice...

On the other hand, Ritualization have a pummeling old school, brutal death metal aesthetic about them that recalls Floridian legends like Deicide or Malevolent Creation. Rapid flurries of flesh branding mute-streams are glazed with brief, uncouth lead sequences and a vocalist that grunts percussively over the far more involved musical undertow. The production of their three contributions here is admittedly thinner and less fulfilling than those of Temple of Baal, but it works with what they're playing, and I especially liked the hustle and bounce of the bass lines and the mesmerizing, semi-technical evil melodies. What's more, in addition to their own pieces "Ave Dominus" and "The Second Crowning", they've covered "The Devil Speaks in Tongues" from the underrated Peruvian monsters Mortem. The song seems simpler in structure than their originals, but the production helps to breed consistently with the other offerings. And it's a great song...and a tasteful choice.

I don't think I could choose a victor here, and I don't need to. Temple of Baal certainly have the production element down, while Ritualization have more vicious, involved riffing. Each outfit is intense in its own right, and with luck, both evolve into favorable squads that can fill in the absent shoes of countrymen like Gurkkhas and Yyrkoon.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.myspace.com/templeofbaal
http://www.myspace.com/ritualization666

Gehenna - First Spell EP (1994)

I'm sure I'm not the first person to notice the steep incline in quality between the 1993 EP Ancestor to the Darkly Sky and the following First Spell. The band themselves chose this title because they likely wanted the audience to remember this as their true initiation, and rightly so. Not only is the production vastly improved over the prior releases, but the songwriting here is subtly imaginative, and better structured all around. They're still moving at a rather sluggish gait throughout the five tracks of this, but there's much more happening and the integration of the symphonic keyboards is far superior, even if they, and the vocals are at times a bit loud, drowning some of the guitars.

First Spell is a bit warmer and more glorious sounding than other Norwegian black metal releases of its er like De Mysteriis dom Sathanas or Pure Holocaust, and this is due largely to the majestic note progressions of the guitars. Acoustic guitars and ringing organs are threaded throughout "The Shivering Voice of the Ghost", but despite the creepy 'haunted house' keys after 2:00 in the bridge, or the pitch-shifted gutturals near the close, Gehenna falls short of being anything near a menace. The same could be said for the festive, subtle and mildly slower "Unearthly Loose Palace", which is unfortunately not an ode to an extraterrestrial brothel, but is a damn absorbing song which I'd number my favorite on the disc. "Angelwings and Ravenclaws" is also re-recorded here with far more polish than its prior incarnation, and I love the stringy, ringing keys dowsed over the first 35 seconds, and in fact all of the simple orchestral elements, though they do admittedly trample the guitars into a support role (it's okay, they weren't doing much anyway).

Another tight track is the closer, "Morning Star", cantering along at a slightly more pressing pace with nice glazes of guitar melody ranged against the synth orchestra. I loved the brooding tones of the intro, over which Dolgar starts garbling gravel, and the rather 'dobby horse' black metal vibe of the writing, a descriptor I might also apply to "Unearthly Loose Palace". Aside from the volumes, which seem mildly skewed towards the key melodies and vocals, the production here is pro enough for its age, with solid Dirge Rep drumming and fuzzy rhythm guitars. First Spell is perhaps not the best output for Gehenna overall, but I feel like this would secure them a spot on that second tier roster of Norwegian bands who managed some success through the osmosis of novelty in the mid-90s. First Spell is slow and beautiful, traits that are not always appreciated by a chunk of the black metal fanbase, but it's an authentic and enduring, proper introduction to a band about to embark on their most important journeys.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (soon I shall walk with earthly feet)

http://gehenna666.cjb.net/

Gehenna - Ancestor of the Darkly Sky EP (1993)

Ancestor of the Darkly Sky was a limited edition 7" printed to about 1000 copies, serving to promote Gehenna onto Norway's rapidly emerging black metal scene. All of the content was more or less culled from their Black Seared Heart demo the same year, but here was a means to manifest an 'official' release without emptying the whole pocketbook, and it sounds as much. Like a lot of these early short-players, it loses a lot of importance in retrospect due to the fact that the tracks are available elsewhere. For example, the whole of Black Seared Heart was released with bonus material in 1996, and "Angelwings and Ravenclaws", the best song here, was polished up and included with the ensuing First Spell EP. So the value of this is severely hamstrung outside of the rarity collectors' sphere.

Though they've never made a name for themselves quite like their peers Emperor, Burzum, Enslaved, Immortal, Darkthrone, Satyricon, and Mayhem, Gehenna have celebrated a long career with a great deal of visibility through some choice labels. Ancestors of the Darkly Sky is an understandably crude sounding record, but at the very least I feel like they offer a more constrained, slower approach to the genre than their countrymen. Or at least, they did back in their halcyon days. The EP consists of but two cheesy organ pieces (an intro and outro), and then two metal tracks, the better of which is "Angelwings and Ravenclaws". Simple chord progressions are bludgeoned out with flighty, cornball keyboards and Dolgar's grimy vocals, but somehow it maintains a fair semblance of charm despite its primitive, Gothic tinged nature. The other piece ("Black Seared Heart") opens with some shimmering, affected clean tones and then escalates into a straight array of sluggish riffs that don't transition all that well. I also could have lived without the multiple, garbled vocals in the opening.

Gehenna certainly qualified in the 'symphonic' category of their genre by this time, but they had nothing on fellow acts Enslaved or Emperor who were much better at integrating their keys within the speed and virility of their composition. Nor were they as raw or blasphemous as Burzum or Mayhem, so it's understandable that they were not the biggest attention grabbers. That said, Ancestors of the Darkly Sky is competently executed, aside from a few transitions. The slower pace at which they perform here might not satisfy some of the genre's audience (in either the 90s or today), and I admit it's not all that exciting, but if you're looking for something that can at least create that mood for mid-90s, haunted house/forest atmosphere then this was far from the runt of the litter. Alas, I wouldn't advise that anyone start their listening tour here, because "Angelwings..." is far better represented on the next EP, and the albums Seen Through the Veils of Darkness (1995) and Malice (1996) comprise the band at their very best.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10] (we await the coming)

http://gehenna666.cjb.net/

Omitir - Cotard (2011)

Omitir's Old Temple of Depression was one of my choice recordings in the black metal genre in 2009, a slowly moving morass of glorious raw black with synthesizers and snarls in the vein of Summoning or Burzum. Since that time, he's been releasing shorter form EPs with largely experimental concepts behind them, so it makes sense that the sophomore full-length, having now arrived, has a far more avant-garde range of sounds incorporated which admittedly do not often resemble the debut. Cotard instead creates a surreal, noir-ish miasma of styles that fuses lengthy sequences of sheer ambiance and unexpected instrumentation like a saxophone to evoke impressions of a haunting, black and white universe of unassuming gloom. It's incredibly effective, to say the least, and I believe I might even enjoy this more than the more traditional accoutrements of its predecessor. The ambient pieces are rousing and dark, if minimal, but they flow fluidly into the discord driven black metal sequences ("Fase I - Foco Abrupto") or back out of them ("Face VI - Em Vidro"). I absolutely adore the simplicity of the bass lines, as in "Fase V - Perda" where they pump along sparsely below the twisted, druglike distortion. Omitir (aka Joel Fausto) also incorporates creepy acoustic pianos ("Perda"), unusual and ponderous samples (the intro to "Fase II - Dor Sumbersa"), and dim, folksy acoustic guitar elements ("Fave IV - O Dramaturgo"). The vocals also warrant some mention. It's true that they evoke nothing out of the ordinary, but the rasping is tortured like some sick and starving fuck bewitched by the hallucinogenic flow of the music beneath. Perhaps the most intriguing piece is the closer, "Fase VII - Belle Indifference" which shifts from noise to black surges to acoustic and then to a sultry sampling of the Pixies ("In Heaven"). I was initially worried that the general song length here would be a turnoff. On Old Temple of Depression, only the bookend tracks were of such substantial bulk, but most of these range from 8 to 10 minutes. Thankfully, the dreary, surreal mix up of styles lends each a harrowing and engaging substance from which you just don't want to emerge. The songs do lack a bit of climax, but then they're not really meant for such bold escalations, instead intent on draining all of the color from the listener's experience and casting he or she into a lounge of shadow and regret. It's surely a different experience than the last album, but even more emotionally crushing as it subtly transports you from periods of lightly droning dark ambient swell into the architecture of manic, schizoid black dementia. Cotard is a bad dream that won't quit, depressing and seductive in equal parts, consistently adventurous and far superior to most of the post-black and shoegazer influenced material coming out of the genre. One of Portugal's best kept underground secrets. Verdict: Epic Win [8.75/10] http://omitir.pt.to/