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Is there such a thing as "Funeral Black Metal"? If not, there is now. Or maybe "avant-garde Funeral Doom Suicidal Black Metal", despite being a mouthful, best describes the musical approach taken by The United Kingdom's Eye of Solitude on the band's third studio album, Canto III.

Canto III is based on the always popular Dante's Inferno; a slow descent into hell where despair, anguish, fear and pain all melt together to form a punishingly heavy, ten thousand ton orchestral Funeral Doom hammer coming down on the listener (at least that is how it is described in the info kit that arrived along with the disc).

Indeed. On Canto III Thergothon-like Funeral Doom meets blast beat-ridden, fast Black Metal creating an interesting formula. Be warned, though: it demands the right state of mind when letting your thoughts and mind fly into this very dark and desperate opus. If you aren't in that state when you start listening, most likely you won't survive through the entire disc because it's THAT desperate and oppressive a listening experience, especially for rookies that haven't heard anything like this before. The album changes its dark colors more often than an octopus when threatened.

As a single album, Canto III is a multi-layered and atmospheric record, full of mind-provoking harmonies. Eye of Solitude have clearly paid a lot of attention to every single detail and nothing here sounds rushed at all. The be(a)st aspects of the album are revealed when you lay down on your bed, turn off the lights and are alone when it's quite everywhere, preferably in the middle of the darkest winter. Canto III offers a fantastic journey through the darkest depths of the mind, which can be a surprisingly dangerous journey. You have been warned, but this is an awesome record, nevertheless.