Antico misticismo

This is a really creepy and sinister recording featuring liberal use of reverb that renders the vocals all but intelligible as well as inhuman and distant, and which gives the tremolo guitars a steely piercing kind of tone. The pace of the music ranges from fast to medium with the odd slow passage which I think TIP could have included more of as the guitars can sound really spidery and horrible when the rhythm is slow. The overall effect is harsh, cold and severe. Considering the particular sound TIP has and seeing that melody is absent with Atratus shredding his strings like there's no tomorrow, I think the odd short melodic guitar solo and maybe some long clear tones would not go astray here because as the album progresses the overall sound gets a bit thin and the music needs some variation to draw attention away from this shortcoming. Even so, so grim and so icy is this recording, I swear your blood will always need defrosting in the microwave oven for at least an hour after you finish hearing this record all the way through.

(Adapted from a review written for UK zine The Sound Projector)