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This is a kind of USBM super-project featuring Wrest (Nachtmystium, Leviathan, Krieg, Lurker of Chalice), Imperial (Judas Iscariot, Nachtmystium, Krieg, NIL) and several other guys who have done time in various BM and sludge/ambient crap bands. I was curious as to what they could come up with, as their debut has gotten some powerfully bad reviews. With the guys involved I was figuring this would be rather experimental, and I was not far wrong.

The addition of some former drone/sludge players to their lineup has added a sort of doomy vibe to a lot of the riffing, which is actually pretty cool. When this album cranks up the metal, it is pretty badass. The problem is they don't crank it up all that much. There are huge passages of this album made up of ambient sounds, acoustic noodling, or other such bullshit. I don't have a problem with nine or ten minute songs, but I want them to be legitimate, not a six minute song with a bunch of stupid time-wasting stuck in the middle. If you have found Leviathan and Nachtmystium's recent output as lame as I have, then you will not be as surprised by this as the people who apparently expected Rise of the Imperial Hordes Part 2. This is album with a cool sound and a lot of promise hamstrung by its refusal to get off its ass for more than a few bars here and there and do something with itself. Every time you think this album is finally getting in gear it stops dead to twaddle at you while you wait for it to get back to the cool stuff. Pretentious and frustrating.