Reveal – Nocturne Of Eyes And Teeth CD

After a brief static noisy intro ‘Under the Temple’ groans into creaking life, its slow ominous riff portenting our doom to come before gradually gaining tempo and settling into a mid/fast canter where it more or less stays for the rest of the album.

Reference points are plenty. We are in the depths of old school black metal here of course, but there is also a tinge of death metal to proceedings. Nods to Mayhem, Mortuary Drape, Temple Below and maybe even a less noisy Excoriate abound, but there are enough touches of their own magic dotted throughout to keep the world weary happy.

Production wise it is raw yet powerful and pretty clear. All of the instruments have room to maneuver, the rattling drums sitting nicely behind the scythe-like riffs and a nice dose of echo and reverb on the vomit-vox to add that cavernous charm. Riff-wise it’s fairly direct, the band less interested in showing off their chops than just getting down to business of creating that delicious black magic we crave.

Half-way through the album ‘Blue Demon’ shoulders its way in with a pleasing rock n’ roll bop to alleviate some of the darkness, its pulsing main riff bringing to mind a more blackened Judas Priest. It’s no-frills, just damn good blackened heavy metal that will speak equally to the happy headbanger and the more introspective black voyagers.

‘Murderer’ descends from a typical black attack into a brief woozy, dreamlike sequence, all jangly guitars and wandering bass-lines before kicking back into a more solid metal ending that gradually drowns out in a wash of strangulated lead guitar weirdness. Nice.

Finishing off the album with a shameless nod to ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas’- seriously, check out those vocals- is a nice touch and more or less sums up what you should expect from these guys; darkness, orthodoxy and just a touch of inventiveness to keep you on your toes.

It’s a short sharp shock of an album that packs a fair few tricks without descending into unfocused nonsense, and all the more impressive given that the band are all in their late teens and early twenties.

Well worth a look for both underground fiends and the more casual wanderer in the realms of the dark.