Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage review

Year : 2012
Genre : Groove Metal, meshuggah Metal
Label : Roadrunner Records
Origin : France
Rating : 7.0 / 10

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Gojira's L'Enfant Sauvage is a solid musical accomplishment that does not exactly seek to reinvent the Tools - pun just might be intended - it relies on, but it does a more than decent job contributing similar patterns you have been witnessing throughout the recent days of modern - meshuggah - metal. The most notable leanings the disc conforms into are aggressive groove warfare, - think along the lines of Lamb Of God, minus the Southern fixation - gloomy black (!) metal that gets presented with the occasional quasi-angst of the alternative side of the parent genre, while the high definition Meshuggah influence is something you will have the chance to witness at work throughout the release, courtesy of the compositional methods the package is exhibiting. Like in the opening track, read more about that later. For now, read on if you want to know the most favored ways and charms of this decent runner-up from French.

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Secular Plague - Secular Plague review

Year : 2012
Genre : Punk
Label : Zorch Factory Records
Origin : France
Official site : > - here - <

France's Secular Plague is a straight-out Sex Pistols re-incarnation that brings to you the original fishnet-covered tattoo ethos in larger than life-, shorter than a short sharp shock fashion. The album, while at heart is a proud and eloquent representative of the good old punkish "We Just Fail to Give a Shit" musical narrative, the steepest-, and pretty much only requirement of the genre is steadily met by the band, which is none other than to establish an organic connection of stone cold raw meat charisma between the instruments AND the lead singer, for whom the ensemble of the aforementioned elements serves as a legitimate - in Sex Pistolsian sense - musical backdrop. Don't be afraid, and be nothing else, either : the album sounds exactly as a Sex Pistols record should. Aggressive, clubroom-intimate, reeking a mood by which a bouncer's fist in your face is as likely as a second (third??) tongue in your mouth is, and the disc sure takes you into the deepest depths of the underground "nitelife", pardon "me French", you worthless gimp. Read on to find out more about this super-orthodox punk release.

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Plug-In - Hijack review

Year : 2011
Genre : Instrumental Fusion Rock with Metal elements
Label : Independent
Origin : France
Rating : 7.5 / 10

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Plug-in, as a full length delivery, sounds to have two focal attitudes/behaviors it seeks to entertain you along, and one of these guarantees intact sonic satisfaction, for sure : this is none other than the - initial - intent of the release to give birth to unique harmonic environments which I personally find the most relevant thing it does, yet, a good amount of this spin revolves around the act of administering quasi-competent guitar wankery on top of orthodox fusion chord progressions and risk-free harmonic passages that lack the will or capacity to surprise your receptors once they have revealed their limited charms.

Hey Cherokee Warria', this is not a problem, there are solo guitars on top, remember? Of course you remember! You have not been given the chance to forget. The release has a whole mini-army of guest lead guitarists featured on it, and, among these, I only am familiar with the name of Matthias Eklund. Mr. Eklund is from Germany, and he is a vastly talented guitarist with a unique vision of the instrument, as you can see if you take the time and check out some of his stuff for yourself. He truly does inventive, crazy, relevant things with the guitar. This is not something I can tell about each and every guest artists of this contribution, though. The extensive - I mean : exxxxxteeeeensive - solo guitar playing on the release does not have a collective body worth showing as long for as it IS shown for, as the undisturbed harmonic structures often are rode by leads that are above average solo monologues at best. Granted, I'm a snob, but, whenever the name of the game is instrumental, than so should you be, Lover, too, because why satisfy with anything else than stellar content if the potentiality to summon that, only is hindered by the sensitivity/skillset of the - ccc - artist? Read on to find out more about this decent fusion rock / metal hybrid delivery if you want.


You know the world famous solo guitarist Steve Vai? He has a profound fixation on this - kind of - drunk whale melodic rhetorics since 1312, and this spin features an extensive hommage to that particular music lingo. I find that feeling truly punishing. Luckily, the harmonies behind the drunk whale melodies are taming my torment a bit, regardless how they are directly taken from the CD outlet of a play-along magazine, I suppose. The release is a hybrid in its artistic quality, in my opinion, and sounds to cover about 1/3 longer of a distance than it could have looked more than "just" reasonably "good" along. Don't get me too wrong, please. The best parts of the release - which I think are the unique harmonic /rhythmic environments whenever it takes the time to reveal them - are of delicate entertainment value, yet, the tendency to trade in this readiness for "easy way out"-type chord progressions, seems to increase in activity as the record - hahaha - progresses.

Titular delivery "Hijack" sounds to be a good example of the top form of the record, with a warped, colorful rhythmic/harmonic fabric, toppled - for NOW - by top tier, rabid lead guitar playing. The superb bass work demands separate mentioning here, as well. While the next track, called "Conkrete" has tremendous promise, the "gift" of the promise never seems to arrive, and the build is toppled by drunk whale guitars, THEN the release is about to reveal its family friendly jazz fusion character for the first time. Seriously, the content starting from 2:50 is the kind of music I expect to hear in a guitar lesson video on YouTube. "Aaaaah, hello! Did you catch which musical MODE I was just playing in? Hello? HELLO??" Later on, the track brings in a hefty, elegant theme reeking a nice, pink Dream Theater vibe.

Next track, called "Meeting Steeve" is your auto-motor sport background music, and the whole song is superbly reminiscent to Steve Vai's song "Let's get out of here". I have a hunch that the title is a tribute to Mr. Vai. (The mid section features Vai's drunk whales, too! Fuck me running!) As for the music contained in this track, it is your everyday average auto-motor music, and it begs for your cheaply tolled appreciation so shamelessly that you will either submit and give it, or it won't get any of it at all. As for me, I can listen to this song with a poker face. (Not counting the tears.)

The remaining portion of the delivery signifies a profound shift towards the rock fusion side of things, characterized by the risk-free modal guitar playing I have been telling you about. I'll be honest with you, and tell you that I have nothing against it at all, it's only that it has nothing for me beyond its super-orthodox existence, which though is super-easy to appreciate. But don't expect crazy-ass progressive metal stimuli as the final third of this album. Expect family friendly fusion rock, and don't expect top of the heat of that, either. For that, you want to listen to the Almighty Frank Gambale. (He is your Daddy.)

Rating : 7.5 / 10

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Alcest - Les Voyages De L'âme review

Year : 2011
Genre : Shoegaze / Retirement Home Black Metal
Label : Prophecy Productions
Origin : France
Rating : 8.5 / 10

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Alcest is a musical project in which fundamental band member Neige attempts to channel messages and emotions from a foreign land he is in contact with. With the earlier body of work of this band being partly misunderstood-, many have thought that the squad's previous outings are sinister, whereas they sought to be hypnotic and peaceful - Alcest indeed moved towards a direction that reveals the respective characteristics of eloquent, harmonic shoegaze music and retirement home black metal. This latter subgenre, of course, is not entirely over-populated yet, so Alcest's work certainly sounds to be quite relevant with the tremendous charm it has the capacity to account for. The album is a super-pleasant surprise in my opinion, as it does not concern itself at all with meta-expectations, finding and sharing peaceful, caressing content that I dare say, oftentimes is of transcendental significance. I will attempt to validate my claim in the body of this Alcest - Les Voyages De L'âme review. Read on if you want or don't.


This release is peaceful all the way through, making use of the orthodox black metal elements in a way so those are free to reveal their secretive tender side without inviting you to call treachery. Alcest's latest offers the content through a smartly limited set of compositional techniques, and, as result of this, the band is able to deliver SOME harmonies of unique significance - more on those later - while the bigger part of this release is "just" pleasant, straightforward, tame black metal that lends you a shoulder to put a head on, and the most aggressive it will get is a funny interlude in track number 2, in which the fronter reveals the Varg Vikernes for a minute or so.

The release makes use of a "real-and-natural" sounding production environment, and scarce are the times when the data seeks to invade you with fabrics having a lot of sounds parked into them. Even when such a thing happens, the wall of sound structures of the release demand immediate recognition : a central harmony always serves the function of a lighting tower, the tides are not intimidating, and you would have a hard time ending up lost in here, no matter how hard you tried.

The music of U2 gives me the shivers, probably because of the singing that I think lacks charisma and dignity, but, strangely enough, regardless how a particular mood calibration of this release reminds me of that findable in U2, in this record, I find the mood charismatic, charming and relevant. I promised to address the moments I think this LP shows true brilliance through, and that is the track called "Beings of Light". A very simple-, but heart-wrenchingly beautiful harmonic structure submits your awareness into blissful submission, and that's going to be be good fun. Alcest - Les Voyages De L'Ame sounds to me as the precise counter-pointing of Blut Aus Nord's trilogy, that which is expected to conclude this year. Listen to this, too, because if everyone listens to Blut Aus Nord, only, than that is so anti-underground, you feel me?

Rating : 8.5 / 10

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Gorod - Transcendence EP review

Year : 2011
Genre : Technical Death Metal
Label : Willowtip Records, Listenable Records
Origin : France
Rating : 9.6 / 10

The Transendence EP from French superheavyweight technical death metal formation Gorod brings you a package with exceptional readiness to offer flamboyant variation of mood and behavior. The first track, called "Earth Pus" - clap your hands for the dude with the title idea - is an intense album opener that, in my opinion, as a direct escapee from a recent day Obscura LP. Radical-, no holds barred melodic work tears silence with a constant hunt for the bidding of its own capriciousness to see if it wants the fucking riff or not, finding plenty of space to freely and inventively lament beside the blast beat and the singer dude, who happens to have a charismatic nervous breakdown each time he is opening the mouth. So things are pretty acceptable.

The second track is a more gently shaped direction that makes use of a buff acoustic setting, one that is pretty much steroid unplugged in character. Steroid unplugged IS good for your awareness, my love. The music exhibits a nice variety of surprising sonic traits and aspirations via the myriad kinds of minor mood-references it connects with each other to form the flow of the experience. I'm picking up vibes of bittersweet bourbon-schanzon, quite traditional Shakira-asshaker Latin that borders on Al Dimeola's take on circus music, - whenever he shreds madly, he plays circus music, no? - supported efficiently by a haunting-, abundantly note-rich feel that is one favorite of aforementioned act Obscura, as well. This narrative, mysterious mood is traded for yet another set of impressive runs of more traditional forms of music as the build progresses, and, while the skills these passages are explored by, guarantee a rewarding momentary experience, when combined with the musically more engaging feeling of the Obscura-like sci-fi thrill, are prone to deliver a final fabric that blames the traditional elements as finely calibrated fillers, in my opinion. Guys, let's talk about the rest of the tracks, too.


Third installment, "Textures", is a cover of the original piece of the same title from progressive band "Cynic", and, since I must admit I do not currently know the source material, all I can say is that I find this cover to be a more successful -, more richly sounding dataflow to flatter the buff quasi-unplugged setting you have the chance in track 3, as well. This super-eventful delivery, though has distorted twin guitars to offer legit, liquified riff -work with great enthusiasm, also sports a sanely controlled global sound that does not seek to intimidate the ears, and remains a gentle composition at heart, instead. Gently, BUT very richly sounding, that is. I think it is safe to say that the Cynic cover is a superb moment of the LP, and I have the hunch that it ends abruptly enough to express dissatisfaction for. So do that if you want.

Fourth track, called "Earth Pus - Salvation" is a much more focused acoustic build, focused on content that is quite rare to behold, that is. The territory this music is coming from is not one you can fake access to if you have none, and it also is a close border-territory to the thrilling sci-fi vibe so eagerly cultivated by recent technical death acts. It sure as cartoon-hell much better, in my opinion, than the arpeggiated fantasy-bard direction.

Titular track, Transcendence is a 15 minutes epic with an initial tendency to flatter the Turkish cutpurse-chaser vibe with varied intensity, and, though this vibe is not one that I would fight with a raksasha for, I must admit it looks interesting when Gorod jackhammers the living music out of it. When this happens, and the flow arrives to the 5th minute mark, the build already is totally free of the need to relate to any mood, and it sounds much more gracefully consumable. At 6:42, you are in heavy fucking duty death metal with truly top level efficiency, and the sonic richness-, AND the integrity of the fabric herein demands unalloyed praise. The music is relentless and raging for a good amount of time herein, and it stays super-focused while declaring its urge of wanting to devour all, leaving you no other chance than to believe and be devoured, indeed. A devoured listener is a shitty one, too, so Gorod spits you out and resurrects you into totally acceptable form, and takes on a more restrained-, but absolutely rewarding mid-tempo stroll that never loses focus from the intricate melody, be it any shape or form or direction to flatter it along. At 11:59, Gorod sounds like it is creating a hilarious parody of metalcore, as the riffcraft shows the anatomy of that particular trend-genre, but supports it with such sexy and relentless rhythmyzation that badly abused metalcore as Thesis finds a new, magnificent will to live and shine by.

Rating : 9.6 / 10

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Echancrure - Paysage. Octobre. review

Year : 2011
Genre : Experimental Drone with Black Metal flavor
Label : Independent
Origin : France
Rating : - review requested by artist -

Echancrure - Paysage. Octobre. sounds to be 30+ minutes of experimental moods that are characterized by a deeply observatory stance, showing zero interest to harm stuff on sight, and only mild at declaring where the structure wants to go, especially in its start off sequence. This restrained contribution most often is reluctant or utterly disinterested to make a move for the hook or the sharply sculpted harmony, exhibiting more readiness at seeking your enjoyment via a brittle atmospheric/background nature that is cautiously flattered by a wide variety of shy, but clearly defined musical instruments.

The primary language of this yours-for-free, or pay-as-much-as-you-want digital download is tenderly expressed experimental gloom, threading along vague directions in the company of a sense of quasi-helplessness the record and its listener cooperatively cultivate during a healthy dosage of the program time. I drift away from stacked void to stocked void in the galore of pretty much bare open musical spaces, looking at random sonic entities that are as ignorant of my alien presence as most often I find myself to be of theirs, and this experience summons the intimacy of listening. As for the relative - at least initial - alienation, that sounds to be a result of some quasi-odd, but no doubt rather exotic instrumental selections, which, of course, are of a highly subjective matter. Read on to find out more about subjective matters.


Though the "I" in a review is not at all important, sometimes it just begs to differ and say that I am genuinely surprised by the presence of cimbalom on a drone record, since, to me, it tends to click along the "NOW, you are ASLEEP, rascal G. I. Joe!" embedded command, but. Once again, this is highly subjective, and if someone else finds this tender, funny cimbalom timber to do justice to the much murkier surroundings they are expressed in on this record, then my private amen naturally has no other chance than to bow down to that particular autonomous experience.

As hinted, Echancrure - Paysage. Octobre. delivers a relatively cumbersome, but tolerable start, and eventually finds a more focused tone to communicate along a share of more relevant moments in its latter portion. The main attractive factors of the release will come to entertain you as courtesy of diligently realized-, chaotic-but-not-offensive orchestra segments, - composed of violins, primarily - and an eerie distorted background guitar joins into the fray here and there too, in order to valiantly veil its one note song of cosmic torment away into the immediate surroundings with hollow, but efficient skeleton-drumming sharing the misery in the neighboring background by its own consent. What I personally enjoy the most about the release, are the moments with pronounced-, playfully chaotic and also soberly limited "violin-foams" present in them. This entity further assuages a not at all unfriendly sonic chaos, and plays around in it in a way that sounds to summon a hint or two at brittle, but diffo-present steam punk vibes.

The release beyond doubt has the capacity of communicating itself as a continuous experience, which probably is one of the steepest requirements to fulfill in the blend of genres this download seeks to flatter. This diligently nihilistic music review site Noise Shaft WILL review an album of an independent artist if one requests so, - as it did right here, right now - but will not offer a rating in such cases, because there is nothing an independent artist needs more than independent listeners, and it is unnecessary to attempt to influence consensus by giving a rating to something that is not yet in commercial circulation, thereby narrowing its chances to be. So, this time, you will rate, if anyone. Follow this link to check out the album yourself :

Echancrure - Paysage. Octobre.

Rating : - review requested by artist -

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Blut Aus Nord - 777 - The Desanctification review

Year : 2011
Genre : Industrial Black Metal with a cybernetic Sludge flavor
Label : Debemur Morti Productions
Origin : France
Rating : 8.6 / 10

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Blut Aus Nord is here with the second installment of its 777 trilogy. The cover art suggests hypnotic Illuminati connotations with many elements of the consorting symbol language being incapable to represent their meaning via their full efficiency. The All Seeing Eye now is a Yog-Sothothian slime-mess on top of the primordial Pyramid turned upside down, and there are, of course, reptiles, too. What about the guy on the top? The awakening of the proper Human Epitome, or "just" a drawing? No, there really is no such thing in existence as "just a drawing", and France's premiere industrial black metal act shows valiant will to break through human meta-calibration and touch upon the things that purposefully dwell beyond the epitome-hematoma of the "just" and the "is".

The anatomy of the compositional method herein is to create impressively massive-, well researched sonic landscapes that a cyberlich finally feels properly home and comfy at, and the spice on top of things to be witnessed is a strategy to bombard the listener's receptors with a cavalcade of biomechanical sonic entities parked all across the middle frequencies. The album has a more restless beginning and a gradual-, but deceitful tendency to witness decay tinker once it declared its rule set, giving you a sense of cynernetic sludge at the climax, which is quite rare to behold. It sounds like JUST the right music for Doom IV.

If you think you have endured more devastating of a strike before to your astral body then a French (look, me punned, totally!!) kiss from Chaos, then the album should exhibit propensity-evident to remap your consorting sentiments via scientific rigor and ruthless efficiency. Read on to find out more about this biomechanical-, transhumanic rewire device.


Blut Aus Nord's latest probably will reveal its intended full functionality intact and full-paua when the trilogy reaches its completion in 2012. Which, according to certain perspectives, also is the year that Noise Shaft readers will turn into transhumanic light beings. Pha. If you can travel out of-, and into any body you prefer to in order to enrich the existence-experience via free will, then it sounds good to me, amen to that.

This album-, while weighs in as industrial black metal on paper, shows much more interest in revealing more calmly-, but rather menacingly paced cybermeat-structures than to celebrate and resonate the classic mechanics of intensified black metal being on a tier of good old fashioned scythe-related rampage in the front row of 2389423423894239423423 skeletons.

This review now performs an illegal operation to submit to the blind potentiality of Chaos, - not that you and I ever had all that much other chance, anyway - and will start to scrutinize this delivery from track number 2. Track number 2, called Epitome VIII sounds to be one of the most slick contribution of the entire spin. It consists of multiple parts, each with superb respective qualities, and they all share a common denominator via their avid cultivation of the

brutally intimate

Chaos-experience.

The track starts out as an uncompromising piece of diligent insanity-worship, which is a very staggering thing to witness in meat space, because, insanity is the only thing that gets stronger if you choose to fight against it. It is so much more fun to witness it for entertainment purposes, only, so no one needs to get actually hurt, and afterwards/during you have the right to shape your related soul-content to look more beneficiary - or more terrible, I admire your work greatly, Mr. Montana! - on the bigger pictures. Epitome VIII seemingly shows only a momentary escape from the hideous grasp of pain-embodied via its midsection, accomplishing this feat by throwing in rather elegant riffcraft into a bottomless abyss of totally humorless, evil intentions. The riff IS intact, looks good and it rationalizes the notion that right THERE, right THEN it also is your only way out of that fucked up place, but, thing is that you do not dare give hope for the riff at THAT moment. Surprise, surprise : once you are done chasing hope, it starts to chase YOU, instead. Hope is a woman. So real. The elegant cybernetic doom riff paves the sonic landscape to absolutely monstrous beautiful music, music that remains relentlessly abominated and uncompromisingly dainty in its character. You need to hear this one to get where it is coming from, because the music worth listening to is eluded by the stock words. (This is what I call good music review site marketing, too. < - sarcasm.) Track number 3, Epitome IX is a tender, shorter ambient delivery with no danger to encounter - except yourself.

Track number 4, Epitome X comes forth riding on a more tame mood than what you have heard so far on this LP, yet the ingredients of the fabric are consisting of the same-, purposefully tormented aural entities. Regardless of the terrorized background story of these skillfully researched timbers, the first key-structure of this track summons the omnipotence vibe you can bath in via The Who's timeless song Eminence Front, which in my opinion remains as one of the primer epitomes of that mood. During its brisk, bravely shaped progression, track number 4 eventually also sinks into wildspace related pandorum, smothered by a void, godless state from which the only way out is through

- dramatic tams in

The Unbeknownst

- dramatic tams out

and it is looking quite relevant while sinking, too.

Track number 5, called Epitome XI is the music I expect Doom 4 to grace my ears with as the main menu music when I hit escape. If you think I dissed the album with this notion, then your absence from the consorting truth is such indeed that the mere hope of you ever reaching it simply fails to recognize you and vice versa, no matter how hard you two are scrutinizing each other.

This particular Doom video game vibe is even more pronounced in the follow-up track, which is titled : Epitome XII. (Wonder if there is a hidden message in the title??????????????????????,,,,,,,) This installment is an easily accessible, simple, but very powerful build in character, with a superb, mid-frequency soulcrusher riff relentlessly burying all hope under places even Oblivion chickens out at. The riff gets complimented by a haunting, massive chorus from time to time, and the whole track is out there to eat you alive.

As hinted not so much long ago, the percept that the album shows a more observatory stance towards abominated aural entities than to make a vile kind of love to them, is pretty deceitful, which is a good thing, because the main idea herein - obviously enough - is to entertain. The album wraps up with a prolonged-, smartly crafted ode to insanity and/or radical spiritual discomfort.

To be totally frank, - which exactly is why you are here, I hope - I'm impressed with the monumental production values of the release, because it features such obscenely crowded areas from an aural point of view, that the unquestionable integrity of the data is a superb accomplishment. The vocals are tremendously effective for what they want, too. They deny all joy and seek to embrace the seeds of direst needs, and this exactly what makes this record work so efficiently. Nevertheless, I do have the hunch here and there that I'm listening to a fantasy-themed '80s pinball machine demoing to itself without the sear promise of a coin present in the neighboring cosmoses, as far as the compositions themselves go, ON OCCASION. Emphasis on "occasion". Before you BFG my ass away, let me tell you this : I think the record has a quite powerful character-, it is packed with quite a few flashes of profound brilliance, yet there also are decisions on this spin to let a superb build wither away here and there. Minute 7 mark of the opening track comes to mind : from that point on, the structure is spiced up by inventively sculpted and thrillingly rhythmized machine gun drums, but it quickly turns out that their mere occurrence is the effective catharsis of the song itself, and they won't take you anywhere, because they have no destination assigned. Boosh!

This still remains the full-spin record you could consider as background stimuli if to summon Beelzebub to ask 1 single question from him, yet minor blemishes in its fabric prevent it from emerging as a primer variant on the Ultimate Chaos Testament. Like this. I liked one particular sentence of this review dearly, so I will reshape it in order to wrap this review up. Blut Aus Nord's second installment in the 777 trilogy is your ticket to take an exhaustingly thorough stroll in the dire company of a brutally intimate Chaos-experience.

Rating : 8.6 / 10

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Glorior Belli - The Great Southern Darkness review

Year : 2011
Genre : Black Metal / Doom / Sludge hybrid
Label : Metal Blade Records
Origin : France
Rating : 8.0 / 10

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Glorior Belli's latest opens a voodoo portal on you that transfers your sorry ass to the immediate vicinity of an extremely irritated and 3 meters long crocodile in Naouleens, - pronunciation : New Orleans - so the plan of this spin is none less than to consort the exquisitely massive and monumentally lazy nature of sludge music with the restlessness of especially unforgiving black metal.

The Great Southern Darkness - try to find the very sloppily hidden tribute to The Great Southern Trendkill in the title - comes to you with a core that declares this delivery as a black metal album at heart, yet the LP's highly grim character packs the aspiration to claim the southern vibes via a good amount of elegantly researched methods that reek the fat promise of good old impending doom. Read on to find out more about these elements, or be voodooed proper, biatch.


The compositions on this record are both solid and flamboyant, and all primer components of them - black metal, dainty doom and bloated sludge - are presented in an eloquent, well varied fashion. None of the respective methods of the ingredients get abused at constant top-efficiency to harass the epitome of instant effect. In other words, it must be pointed out that this album, wisely enough, does not seek to serve out your anticipations by blast beating your misery on the altars of instant southern sludge, it instead is focused to give a kind of doom-tinted black metal, that which gets constantly assuaged by a much more calmer - but still mean - stroll along the southern sludge vibes.

The closest the album comes to-, and fulfills your initial anticipations you are likely to cultivate, is the third track, called They Call Me Black Devil. This song gives you a superb rendition of southern sludge having an explicit affair with specter-black metal, and the next track that follows this one up, sounds extremely strong with its unalloyed misery spilled all over the place in the style of a more sorrowful kind of doom, that which though still has the will to move on. Oh, and the fact that the track's first segment has nothing southern about it, is an embarrassment to complain about.

One beneficial key factor of Glorior Belli's latest declaration is its capacity to surprise you without end while the spin lasts. Once you find yourself more and more accustomed to any central moods the album is fond of revealing, the more closer you are to a dramatic change in the fabric of things. These changes never trade variation in for less efficiency, and an intact build that has sober capacity to flatter and consort traditional black metal / impending doom and massive sludge, indeed is established and decently delivered. The last 20 seconds of the album is especially rabid compared to the character of the release. Why did I just say that? Because I just have heard it.

All in all, The Great Southern Darkness delivers ruthlessly, despite any qualms a culturesnob position may give birth to. If you have enjoyed this release, you may also find luscious pleasure in a death / doom hybrid, scrutinized herein. As for The Great Southern Darkness, the naked intent to consort black with thick sludge and slim doom, results in stable, mean success with razor sharp crocodile teeth, and it seeks to rip out a piece of you. As a start.

Rating : 8.0 / 10

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