This band from Sweden started out in 2005 with the intriguingly titled demo “What do You Think of the Old God, We Call Him Judas?”, since then a further two demos and three albums of black ambience including this one have been added.

The album starts with five minutes of cosmic ambience and sound waves – a bit ówt krì and quite spooky but without impact. This cannot be said of the start of the twenty one minute “Long Into The Time Beyond”. With clear religious overtones thanks to the eerie choral voice, the wind whistles, the drum patters rapidly and through the distorted sound patterns, there is a fearsome atmosphere. Those sounds become more insane and alienated from any form of known reality, as we seem to be cast headlong into an endless tunnel. Loud, echoing moans and roars add to the sense of suffering. Who knows what’s going on down there? We have no control over it. There’s the sound of dripping water and a resonant echo. The echoing voice falls away and rises again in the wind tunnel. Out of the black, a sinister drum beat emerges but the scene remains as impenetrable and obscure as ever. The progression is nightmarish. The sounds are distant. At one point it sounds if animals have been let into the void. This is black metal of the most mind-twisting and terrifying kind. The scene is of blizzards, windy voids and helplessness. The sense of isolation is reinforced with a quiet and pulsing piece. It’s as if the wind has temporarily abated. But it’s not for long. The seventeen minute “Dwellings Are His That Die” starts with the sound of an unstoppable monster. Clarity is lost as the drum pumps out a bleak tune, while in the background the electrical fields of “Long Into The Time Beyond” return. All is confusion once more. Somehow, out of this confusion there is a driving pattern, albeit a cosmic distorted one. It’s almost as if it makes sense. It’s like anarchy, industrial processes and wilderness rolled into one coherent piece of noise. I didn’t find this as aurally challenging as I might have done, in fact so long as you don’t expect anything regular, this can be appreciated as the music of another stratosphere.

It was a pleasure to be introduced to the remote and black world of Reverorum ib Malacht. This fearsome world is one of vastness and echoing voids. “Ter Agios Numini” is utterly weird but totally fascinating.

(8/10 Andrew Doherty)

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