Not knowing the band, I had no particular expectations going into this, but it turned out to be quite an enjoyable CD. However, I must stress something, lest anyone get overly excited about the bands I'm going to namedrop when describing them--while they certainly have great influences and it's wonderful that a band was doing music like this in 2012, I think they fall a bit short in truly carrying on the legacy of their influences. I do respect that the music is generally utterly oblivious to the Scandinavian black metal scene; this is mid-paced-to-slow black metal that owes nearly everything to the early '90s Greek and Brazilian scenes. A one sentence summary from me would be something like "less overtly Greek sounding Murder Rape debut with deep, somewhat Göetia-like vocals." Speaking of which, it's a bit of a shame Mystifier is not mentioned in the thanks list, as I definitely get some Göetia (and later) vibes from Luvart, although they're nowhere near as fucked up and ritualistic sounding as Mystifier's prime stuff. Otherwise, the booklet shouts out almost every other older band I was reminded of significantly (Murder Rape, Mortuary Drape, Varathron, Mythological Cold Towers--even the mentions of Headhunter D.C. and Acheron make sense in context, as in many ways this style is stylistically closer to death metal than it is to the stereotypical Nordic BM sound). The one slight annoyance I have is they didn't totally commit to the production qualities and guitar/drum sound which are integral to the charm of the old Hellenic black metal sound, instead opting for a decent contemporary sounding production. So yeah, there's a lot of that sound in the riffs, but it's watered down somewhat by the production and playing style--if you're looking for total Greek BM immersion, you'd be better off with Cemetery Lights or something similar. Still a very solid listen.
