The Beast Of The Apocalypse

Henosis

Transcendental Creations 2011

It has been two years since the Netherland's esoteric black metal alchemists, The Beast Of The Apocalypse, have revealed their hidden knowledge to the world in the form of an album.  So once again we are immersed in a world of dark and arcane black metal art with their new album, Henosis.  After an almost drone doom intro, the full wrath of fuzzed out guitars and blasting noise blows across us like a hurricane force wind on Vision Of The Twelve Priests Before The Altar.  The first passage of the song would do Beherit proud but suddenly the composition morphs into strange textures of industrial and minimalist drone aesthetics.  I Am Not Worthy To Utter Thy Name is very hypnotic in its repetition and one starts to feel a whole ceremonial vibe as you progress deeper into the album.  The vocals are all distorted and washed out shrieks that are barely audible above the wall of fuzzy guitars and mechanical drums.  Even the synths are buried and add an industrial quality rather than a symphonic aspect.  The astral synth and guitar that begin the title-track shift our hearts and minds skywards into deep space, full transitioning the musical flow of the album towards what was only hinted at on the previous tracks.  The track moves along at a mid-tempo pace until bursts of speed wash over the track like a meteor shower, brilliant and heavenly.  An Enlightened Aeon hurtles forward at great speed, the riffs and drums streaking towards some sort of cataclysm.  The track behaves like a more stylistically rigid Beherit with an influx of American black metal riffing.  However with all the praise I have heaped upon the album, at times I do get the impression this is a little too "intellectual" for its own good and at times there is a distinctly flat feeling to the album.  Not a lot really stands out, like really gripping riffs or stellar astral synth parts.  So, there is some tempering of my positivity towards Henosis.  But one should still approach this album as an open-minded neophyte seeking wisdom from learned elders.