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This is not what I expected. A huge album, well over an hour with 23 tracks (half of them instrumental interludes). The meat of this is aggressive, stripped-down Blackened Death Metal, very much in the vein of Celtic Frost or old Sodom. This is raw, heavy, and riff-oriented music with a big fat guitar sound and deep gargling vocals. Sprawling and sometimes epic arrangements keep this from Hellhammer-like simplicity, and this is music with a lot of ambition and space.

I enjoy this disc, but it is so long it starts to lose focus halfway through. The lyrical occultism is impressive but so esoteric as to be the equivalent of showing off. I can't shake the sense that these lyrics were written to impress me with erudition rather than meaning. There are too many of the instrumental interludes and too many of them sound the same and run into one another, further reducing the tension generated by the heavier moments. This album could have been tightened up substantially and been stronger for it, but it is still a good listen.