Opening with a song title of the length Bal Sagoth would be proud of (thankfully that’s as the only comparison to draw), the imaginatively titled ‘A Glimpse of the Image of Lucifer Gleaming Beyond the Subterraneous Black Sun’ marches forth.
Mid paced, it stamps away with the precision of a well oiled Black Metal machine for the first four minutes then enters a more sedate but no less sinister phase which highlights that the band are more than capable of composing multi-sectioned songs. This develops with a great long riff akin to the early 90?s masters which builds nicely and then dives without hesitation back into the opening tune to finish off.
Next up is ‘Tetraskelion’. It literally belches out with dark, grim and guttural puking vocals that add an odd menacing atmosphere. The riffage is nice and detuned and strangely discordant, the overall effect is nicely chaotic. It changes little throughout but remains consistent with a massive Ogre-like bellow towards the end.
Sanguinary Misanthropia save the best until last with a scything opus of nastiness. It starts off much the same as the other two tracks but quickly descends into the depths as sinister guitars and raw vocals dominate the airwaves. This is offset nicely when a brisk rampaging riff comes to the fore like a foul mist blown across the face of the sun. In turn this slows down into a creepy picked section as all light is extinguished and they speed up again to the gates of hell.
Overall this is a really decent EP musically and comes packaged in a smart dark CD-Digi Pack. On top of that it is great to see a band with some real underground substance and potential emerging from Australia. Recommended.
(http://hellfurnace.com)
