Lake Of Blood
The Burial Ground Sessions

The Burial Ground Sessions was recorded absolutely live and in one incredible take at, lo and behold, the Burial Grounds in Salem, Oregon. Other bands that have recorded here include the mighty Leech, Merkstave and Mania and Lake Of Blood certainly use the infamous setting to their advantage.

This is eighteen minutes of aural onslaught from the Californian five-piece. Eighteen minutes of pure and passionate black metal. Eighteen minutes, two powerful tracks and a taste of what’s still to come from this band.

In Wells Of Shadow kicks things off beautifully. A slow, almost funereal and doom-like entrance, rumbling with bass and feedback and pounding drum beats. So deep that you can feel it in the hollow of your chest. It’s almost as if the band are right in front of you, such is the intensity of the recording. It’s magnificent, and truly a testament to the absolute raw energy this group emanate.

The vocals are harsh, kept low in the mix, yet completely representative of the subjects at hand; despair, loss, utter hatred – for both man and the destructive force he embodies.

The pace suddenly changes, quick and driven by some exquisite drum work. Blast beats abound with such fury it’s difficult to imagine anyone having the stamina to get to the end of this song. The guitar work is supremely fast, the bass thundering along like there’s no tomorrow. It’s relentless and quite the breathtaking experience. I can only imagine that seeing this band live is an education in endurance, a merciless assault on the senses.

The closing minutes of this track blow everything that came before it out of the water (and everything that came before was already a tad on the mind-blowing side). The pace never seems to let up and your neck (I’m talking about some intense headbanging here) will never forgive you for what you’re about to do to it. UGH.

He Who Becomes announces itself with a high pitched wail of feedback before launching into a sublime bass riff and a super quick drum beat. Again the vocal is kept low in the mix, evoking desolation, howling and screaming in torment and agony.

It’s another massively bass heavy song, really driving the gut feeling that black metal has come to elicit. This is a raw as it gets, a band in their prime yet still having so much more to offer. I for one, cannot wait.

The Burial Ground Sessions will be available via Eternal Warfare Records later this year on a limited cassette run. If you miss out, don’t despair, because the band plan to re-record the tracks for their next full length record.

A word of advice – don’t miss out.