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Ceremonial Castings are a defiantly anti-commercial US band who have put out six albums on their own Dark Forest label, and show no signs of slowing down. Pressings of this band's albums are famously limited, so getting them can be tricky. This album has great cover art by the mighty Kris Verwimp, which I admit was what motivated me to check it out in the first place.

Ceremonial Castings plays a fast, precise breed of Black Metal that is definitely in the Emperor vein, featuring a lot of keyboard work which is mostly well-done, but does sometimes overlay the music in a distracting way. The guitars on here are ruthlessly heavy, and combined with the machine gun drums and razor-clean production might make you dismiss this as too commercial. But the songwriting is inimical and quite ferocious, making good use of dynamic and some slower tempos. The riffs are actually good, and will hook you in even played at 300 mph. Cuts like "Human Slave Infantry" and "Reborn Through The Bestial Flame" smoke with heavy riffs and merciless shredding. The title track alone kicks more than enough ass to justify the whole album.

This album is definitely worth checking out, and even if keys normally put you off a BM album, this one packs enough wallop to overcome that handicap. Not revolutionary, but cool nonetheless.