Have any of you fine ladies and gents heard of Lebanon before? Come on! No? Oh well, our Metal music scene is very small, barely active, and with one silly release over here a band is satisfied for a lifetime from what I found. However, LAGRIMA have something else to say about this. LAGRIMA recently released their debut album "Hannibal Ad Portas", a dark magic circle harvesting energies from the Black and Death Metal kingdoms. The album is a breath of fresh air, and is absolutely interesting. Now I shall explore this release's contents again, to prove to you what I just said.

The album opens up with an amazing prelude equipped with some Gothic keys and strings, setting you in the perfect mood to enjoy what's to come. By the Gods! The second track is an epic onslaught of Black Metal at its first half, accompanied by some decent Blackish shrieks and growls, and the other half contains some great acoustics, guitar chugging, and some over the top guitar riffs. If this isn't a great impression so far, then I must be losing my proper sense of hearing.

The next summon goes by the name of "Conquest of Iberia", and here we witness a more Death Metal approach to the formula preached in the second track, with some melodic riffs and Deathly chugging thrown in with a variety of growls and throaty screams, while maintain a steady Black Metal formula. With the third coming to a halt, the fourth comes in with yet more and more variety. This track's arsenal is now armed with keyboards, minor guitar soloing, mood swings into more Black Metal territory, and more harmony. This 9 minute battle proved to me that defining LAGRIMA's style with one word is absolutely impossible.

The second part of the album which initiates after the end of the 3 minute intro "Trepia Trazimian Cannie" goes into the Death Metal realm with much less Black Metal now. "Abhore the Antagonists" and "A Final Fight" put up a good show and really change the album mood to a more hyper and aggressive one. With this album finishing, I quote the legendary Varg Vikernes "This is... huh! Wow!"

Variety is one of this album's interesting sides. The listener will find a lot of influences to keep him listening through each and every track, although, the album could have been recorded better. For example, the guitars at the last half of "Arise and Arrest the Destiny of Rome" sound totally out of place compared to those from previous tracks, and the Black Metal shrieks, despite being decent may need a little more work.

In the end, this album has something to offer for a wide variety of listeners in the Metal realm. It's new, and has a lot of hard work put in it's making. What's even better, it's free! This release is just a click away from the band's pages. Download, and enjoy! I give this 8 motherfucking points.