Blinded by My Blood

After a short and chaotic intro Mystica shows their well-built, strong thrashing death/black metal with heavy riffs and solo’s. Opening track “My Malediction”, “Betrayal 666” and “Mystica” represent the brutal death metal side of the band’s sound, these tracks remind me in essence and grim feeling a lot of death metal monument Benediction (“The Grand Leveller” era). On the other hand do tracks like “Illusion”, “For the Love of God” or the title track accentuate the black metal side of this formation. In all Mystica sounds like a thrashing death incarnation of Norway’s Immortal. The recording sound is fantastically clear, with heavy drums and an excellent recorded guitar-sound. Xavier Carion (ex-Channel Zero) did a wonderful job on this record. “White Princess” closes this album and is top-notch proof that Mystica doesn’t need the blast beats in order to create dark, variated tracks. I’ll be looking forward to their next full length.