Back in the early 1990s, that crazy Count from BURZUM bashed out a debut album that electrified the crop of black metal bands popping up like weeds. He did this thing with the melodies, sending these showers of ringy, distorted, tones strangling each other for dominance. Until that time, a lot of that stuff had seemed very samey, like approximations of early CELTIC FROST with the breakneck guitar riffs. But this cold, raw, ringing stuff just sent shivers down everybody's spine while cramming in lots of weird dissonant guitar storms that even MY BLOODY VALENTINE fans could appreciate, at least from arm's length. Even when the thumpy parts came in a la MAYHEM, those evil, droning arpeggios made it sound damn irresistible.

Surprisingly, both of the bands featured on this split are American (from California). Both XASTHUR and LEVIATHAN take this ringy, stingy black metal style and pound it out over ten punishing tracks. The vocals range from dry-throated shrieks to slit-throat gargles, usually delivered toward the back of the mix in a wind tunnel. XASTHUR has more of an affinity for lengthy church organ-ish interludes (ie “Achieve Emptiness” and “Instrumental”), and LEVIATHAN leans toward an even harsher death noise and longer texts in the 10+ minute range. The lead guitar that springs during XASTHUR’s cover of KATATONIA’s “Palace of Frost” sounds more rock’n’ rollish than a KISS anthem after sitting through their first six tracks of windblown despair.

At this point, there are only a handful of decent American bands that are flying the flag of black metal. This split provides an alluring showcase from two of them. While it isn’t as head-turning as Malefic’s TWILIGHT project from last year, this cd reissue provides a neck-snappin’ good time. For twelve bucks, it’s a steal.

- Marchman

OFFICIAL SITES: http://xasthur.mercurous.net/, myspace.com/leviathanx666x

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