Claiming that Akhlys are “the globe’s premier channelers of abyssal nightmare” seems a bit strong but I get the idea. The band’s fourth album release promises “psychological horror, orchestrated bludgeon and eerie foreboding on a harrowing journey into pandemonic majesty”. No hyperbole would appear to be sufficient.

Understatement is not on the agenda as Akhlys lead us into a land of turbulence and danger. A long moan can be faintly heard behind the power of the black metal. “The Mask of Night-Speaking” is dramatic and gripping like a film score. Down into the chasm plunges the music before there is an explosion as if this wasn’t intense enough. The voice which enters this fraught scene roars. The music cascades. The drums batter violently. The world is at war here. The musicianship is tight and deliberate. The cascading guitar adds an edge to this fizzing atmosphere. Well, that’s the first piece and I’ll give them full credit for “pandemonic majesty”. Where can we go from here? The answer is “Maze of Phobetor”. It’s a blizzard of drums and guitars, enhanced by a healthy roar. Welcome to Hell, folks. Evil rains down upon us. Grandiloquent and oozing tones of destruction, this is not something that can be ignored. Here is the Death Industrial style that is spoken of. Behind the pounding brutality there is eerie backdrop which makes it a yet more impressive slab. It’s as if this maelstrom of fury is infested by insects.

The abyss gets a name check in “Through the Abyssal Door”. To the tune of triggering drums and a massive wall of noise, it is a dark and weighty procession. We are then taken orchestrally on a journey through the cosmos. The tone of course is sinister and the journey is sonically turbulent. I sense that Akhlys are trying things here, having gone from rampant black metal through the procession of “Through the Abyssal Door” to this cosmic soundscape. I really wanted them to get back to the sphere of blackened music where it is clear that they have plenty to say. With its pompous beginning, “Sister Silence, Brother Sleep” duly takes us to the fields of evil. The build up shares the earlier grainier ambience but the tempo and metal pomp expand into majestic magnificence. The album closes with “Eye of the Daemon – Daemon I” ends in typically bombastic fashion. With metal pulses bursting from every vein, it had the air of a tragic end.

It was always going to be hard to maintain the intensity and splendour of the opening track “The Mask of Night-Speaking”. Akhlys do it by varying the ambience and mood. At times I felt “House of the Black Geminus” got stuck in its own bombast but overall this is a weighty and largely impressive album.

(8/10 Andrew Doherty)

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