Being new to BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL, when I pressed play on the title track "Caller of Spirits" on the project's fourth full-length album "Light The Fires"  I had no idea what to expect. The one thing I did not expect to hear coming through my headphones was thirteen minutes of strangely captivating throat singing. Though it must be said that "Caller of Spirits" is a very fitting introduction for the album to come...

BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL was formed from the ashes of the project SVART UGLE in 2005 by the sole member Chet W. Scott. BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL could be described (or perhaps not described) as being of the Funeral Doom / Dark Ambient; the topic matter of nearly all of the music is in some way related to the soul. You may think this longwinded and pretentious but the fan base of the project regard listening to BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL as a bona-fide spiritual experience.

The production of the album itself is excellent. Ambient sounds swirl around your head whilst entwining with the marvellously melancholic guitar. Just as you have fallen under the spell of the first three tracks in comes the hammer of the distorted guitar and the demonic Black Metal tinged growl of "Sundrojan". Every instrument is crystal clear, crisp and even manages to summon the satisfying rumble in your gut. Although, in a few songs although the volume of the snare drum could be slightly louder but I can be very picky.

Getting to the heart of this album is actually not as difficult as you may think. All that you need to do is lie down, turn it up and let in envelop you. Even listening to the lyrics is optional, the music is a feeling. I wager that even if you played this to a non-English speaker they would just get every song. This is the kind of music that exposes our inner selves and that does not need to be explained through words.
 
The only time I have ever heard such extreme contrast between beauty and aggression on a par with this album is with OPETH, however, unlike OPETH the line between the touching and the furious becomes blurred. This album shows you how beautiful rage can be, especially in "Two Ravens at the Tree Line" when the harsh growled vocals somehow become one of the most incredibly emotive performances I have ever heard, it actually sounds like Scott's soul is pouring out of him.

The downsides to this album are incredibly slight and certainly none of them lie in production. The biggest put-off in this album must be the length that the songs go on, I am a classic Progressive fan so I am not against long songs but when they are just repeating the same thing for 10 minutes trying to achieve a hypnotic effect it does not work. The hypnotic effect has been far better achieved by Black Metal bands who repeat the same thing for only four or five minutes, a balance needs to be achieved to actually captivate the listener.

"Light The Fires" by BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL is a good album; but not a fantastic album. It is beautiful and undeniably spiritual but halfway through the song it becomes a genuine struggle to not press the skip button.