Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Well it happened only seconds into the first cut "Pitbound (The 4th Trial of Acolyte)" and then the thing just stopped… I look down and there's blood flowing from my disc drive… I realize right then and there I might be in for way more than I bargained for. Let's face it... if a bands' gonna bill themselves as "True Black Metal," they better have the balls to back it up.
Okay so now we're into about the fourth track, the CD player stops again -- dead stop -- no warning, no blank pauses or effects, just shuts down. Looking through their cover booklet not only can I now see the world clearly in black and white, I've got all the underworld education I'll need to last a lifetime. But fear not, for the torture is not a slow one -- and I mean this in only the sincerest of terms -- this is indeed Black Metal, in fact some of the finest ever conjured and served cold to the caped black masses.

They've got way more bottom end than does an Emperor or Cradle Of Filth, something I think had been lacking from time to time with all this concentrated Gothic/Vampirism charm that's convoluted the bare essence of Black Metal (the essence, of course, is to consternate, consecrate and flat out crush your beliefs and destroy your virtues). I'm safe since I don't have any of the above... but I'll say one thing, they mean what they say and their quoted material is frighteningly prophetic as it turns out. So beware, there may be more to this stuff than the usual smile and scoff -- "for a person who cares more of his ideology than of himself is truly dangerous" or "It seems there is no finer point than that which is lodged with the cranial index of a Dying priest;" and I've no explanation for the capitalization of "D" in "Dying." We may quickly view the frightful undercurrents contained in such wayward thoughts, and for those who're compelled to embrace them, truly damnable and ably dangerous.

Musically, there are none more so dangerous… sure we're getting a bit silly with the album cover -- ho hum -- and these biblical black names and phrases are equally farcical, but before long you're trapped helplessly to witness this bludgeoning and brutal murder that's unmercifully carried out over and over, song after song. There's no peaceful mist in the air, no enchanting moonlight, only an aggression admirable and convincing, and Black Dawn… few more malicious.