It is clear right from the beginning that this album is a fucking beast. It starts off with a short bagpipe introduction, but that moment of calm and serenity is to be short-lived because the band immediately hits the throttle and takes off and there is barely a moment of rest for the duration of the album. There are a few instrumental interludes that break things up, just enough for the listener to take a break, but these are short and far between. Then things kick back up. This album is a steamroller.
The closest approximation to their sound I can draw is to say that they sound like Slayer, if they were playing songs by Mayhem. The band is striking at full speed, with rampaging riffs and artillery-fire shock-and-awe drumming. The vocals are mostly an afterthought, usually delivered in a black metal rasp, but they are somewhat low in the mix. The riffs and drumming are the important parts. I am not even sure how it is humanly possible to play the drums like Proscriptor. Some songs, such as "She Cries the Quiet Lake", even have something of a Middle Eastern rhythm to their madness, sounding a bit like Melechesh.
This album will leave the listener breathless after it is done. It is a full-speed-ahead tour de force of manic drumming and sharp riffs. This is easily a career highlight album from Absu and is the release I will point to as the beginning point for Absu. Subsequent releases were attempts to recapture this magic, to varying degrees of success. This album deserves its lofty place as a landmark in U.S. black metal, it is damn near a perfect album. Unfortunately, Absu called it quits earlier this year. A shame.
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