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This is an odd disc. Hallowed Butchery is a one-man project by this guy who lives in Maine. He started out as some kind of Blackened grind band, but has now drifted into extremely experimental territory. In fact, part of the problem with this EP is that it can't seem to decide what it wants to do. There are parts that are doomy, or folky, industrial touches, even some ‘coreish moments mixed in with the general experimental Blackened vibe.

The first serious song "Pantheon Enthroned" shows both the strengths and the problems with this music, as parts of it are very good Black/Doom crushing riffs, mixed in with acoustic bits that remind me of Agalloch or Woods Of Ypres – only not as good. "Great North Woods" is total industrial crap like something NIN would cook up if they recorded with the Smashing Pumpkins. Then "Back Asswards" gets back to the crushing. "Kingdom Within You" is just repetitive acoustic strumming, and then "The Kennebec" comes in so slow it's almost Funeral Doom and then descends into muttering spoken-word bullshit and piano plinking.

It's just frustrating. Some of the melodic ideas here are quite good, and I can tell the man has talent, but so far he has not been able to gel his experiment into anything really cohesive or gripping. I can tell he's trying for something genuinely different, and I applaud that. But this EP is mostly just obtuse and annoying. Whatever he's going for, he's not there yet.