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Inferno Requiem are only the second Taiwanese Black Metal band I've ever come across (the first being the highly Dimmu-like Chthonic). This one man outfit is a world apart from any keyboard ensconced melody-fest, sounding more like a venomous hissing blast of early 90's Norwegian Black Metal instead.

In simple terms, you could class Inferno Requiem as 'Transylvanian Hunger with lyrical topics based around Chinese ghost stories and ancient torture techniques', but there's also touches of the filth-ridden Finnish sound thrown in to slap on that extra layer of acrid bile. The guitars are a bass-less ear-serrating hiss throughout, with the vocals having a similar affect on the senses, battering your ear drums like double bass pedals. Fog Blashyrkh (yes, that is the mainman's 'oh-so-original' name), has a good ear for melody when you can actually hear it amongst the insatiable drum battering, but there is the odd occasion when it's simply lost in the constant blast of Black Metal scree. But, to me, this just adds to the mysticism along with the excellent album artwork — it's not like it ever gets to the point where it just turns into simple noise after all.

Of course, this isn't re-writing the Black Metal handbook, but neither did the likes of Judas Iscariot and they were pretty damn decent too. This is certainly worth checking out, especially for those who like the idea of bands who base their concept around oriental tradition. Good stuff.