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Let's face it, there's a hell of a lot of one man black metal outfits out there nowadays. There are literally thousands of grim young gentlemen, all frothing with hatred and disdain for mankind in their basements, putting their minimalistic odium to fizzing, crackly tapes every day. Every so often however, you come across one that sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the plethora of Darkthrone and Burzum wannabes, and I'm happy to say Novistador are one of these bands. This is the debut release for Novistador, only being completed early in November 2006, and it shows great promise for future releases. Even though it's certainly not re-inventing any genres, all of the 3 tracks span over 20 minutes in all showing a good quality of songwriting ability, and an intuitive use of synthesizer keyboard passages, similar to that of later Burzum, and even splashes of early Mortiis here and there.

There is quite a strict segregation of styles on each track, with the opener 'Four Masks' being wholly raw black metal, replete with cavernous vocal-work, charcoal coated guitars and clattering drums. Second track, 'World Ruin' comes across in a lot more of a shoe-gazing, early Manes-esque black ambient style, whisking you away to the very place that the title of the track suggests with its slow, dirge-like drums and haunting, reverb filled guitar-lines. Third and final track 'Outro' is a 100% dark ambient track, creating a perfect dark atmosphere to close out the demo in a pensive, hypnotic manner . So all in all, it's a thoroughly captivating demo and certainly worth checking out (especially as you can download the whole thing free from the Novistador website). So, what are you still reading this for? Check it out, and keep it underground!