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Eldrig Van See continues his path for bombastic orchestral Black Metal perfection with his third solo album Mysterion. His work in Fanisk left me speechless, and his solo efforts were just as incredible too, so it was a no brainer that I was going to enjoy his latest effort too.

Firstly, whereas his first solo album was strictly instrumental, this one contains sparse bursts of vocals throughout adding a little tangible improvement (even though his blackened rasp is unintelligible, it adds an extra rhythmic dynamic to the proceedings). Musically it's as impressive as ever, with riff upon riff sliding and weaving into each other, layering sweetly over synthesizer work and a battering drum onslaught. Meticulous and melodic, this kind of bombast would make the likes of Bal-Sagoth and Summoning shit themselves thanks to its otherworldly and utterly absorbing spectrum of spellbinding musical shades. Each of the five songs on the album are over 10 minutes long (though, when you're listening to it, you really don't notice at all due to the nature of the mesmerizing songwriting), with lyrical topics based around the writings of various Nazi-occultist writers of the 20th century.

With music this good, it never ceases to amaze me that Eldrig's work isn't more commonly known in metal circles when it comes to epic, grandiloquent Black Metal (perhaps his NS sensibilities are a deciding factor in this). Whatever the reason, this album, along with his other works will continue to be spoken about in hushed, revered tones by those who are 'in-the-know'. Awesome stuff.