When a band is cloaked in a mysterious darkness, such as Dragged Into Sunlight are, it does prick a certain amount of curiosity. It’s not a new concept, secret identities, skulking around in the dark, masked photo shoots, but it works so well for a band like DIS who let their music paint a scathing picture of the world as a bleak and wearing place. The single forty minute track that is ‘Widowmaker’ starts as a simple hypnotic riff that creeps into the subconscious slowly building in depth until, around the fifteen minute mark, the whole band joins in, bringing the same sparse riff down like a sledge hammer as the blackened/crust/doom starts to bring forth the cloak of darkness and all the maniacs that reside within it. Feral vocals scream and spit from behind the riffs, like a tortured soul from several layers of Hell below. They don’t last long though as a sampled speech takes over and the music gets darker, when the vocals reappear they are guttural growls interspersed with bizarre sampled speech.

With just ten minutes left, this all enveloping hell sound peels back to a simple distorted, down tuned riff. This is a false security from the horror as the terror doom claws its way back for the final assault.

There are waves of tribal metal-punk lords Neurosis, snarling Sabbath sludge merchants Iron Monkey and best of all – occult  industrial ambient experimentalists Coil, all wrapped in this epic track of horror and misery. Not every band can pull off a single song album, many have tried and failed, turning it into a woeful excuse to musically wank and to state how “clever” they are as a band to go outside their everyday surroundings, but then Dragged Into Sunlight aren’t an ordinary band.

 (9/10 Alex Boniwell)