If I had a nickel for each Polish black metal band I've reviewed an EP for in the past 24 hours, I'd have two nickels, and I'd probably use them to buy a third. Upon The Altar strays a little from the path, as death metal plays a bigger influence on their sound. This trio, with their personas, will be adding "Profanation's Vapor" to the pitch-black pile of Polish kvltness, but it must hold its own. Otherwise, it's just getting pushed farther back in the bin.

Every release nowadays needs to start with an "Intro." Forty seconds of Lovecraftian ambience that sets the tone for the title track. We can just call this war metal, which is just a blend of death and black metal anyway. This track is intense with a capital i-e. While it's not extremely fast all the way through, the doom metal elements shrink you down to the size of an ant within a matter of seconds. The black metal vocals are almost spoken word in their delivery, which adds to the evil. For a song that's barely over three minutes, I'm impressed. "Dominatio In Excelsis" pure osmium. Every instrument brawls with each other like bratty kids on a playground, and some sampled female vocals are barely audible. The drumming never lets up, to the point where it sounds like a helicopter. The production is clearly trying hard to contain all of the noise, and while that makes for a less-than-stellar sound, I'm currently in a chaotic mood.

That was a quick first half of an EP, but the second doesn't let up. "Reign Awaits" is the closest track to traditional black metal so far, but the gutturals and drumming techniques of death metal are still prominent. This track seemed better production-wise, maybe because the instruments calmed down for a second or half. "Havoc Wreaked" is up next, and Upon The Altar was correct. Havoc was wreaked throughout the song's runtime, in a quite symphonic fashion. The subtle synths made quite a difference, thanks to bTo. The closing epic, "Tenebrous Harbringer," slows things down to a crawl. If you thought Upon The Altar wanted to fill seven minutes of ultra-technical playing, you'd be wrong. The group gets doomy, gloomy, and everything depressing. I'm not headbanging, I'm head swaying.

I'm convinced that black metal is done best when it's from Poland. In "Profanation's Vapor," Upon The Altar explores black, death, doom, and war metal all in twenty-something minutes. While I'm not one who finds replay value in EPs like this, I'm glad I took the time to give it a listen. I'm also thankful it's "only" an EP, as twenty more minutes of breathing in "Profanaton's Vapor" would result in an overdose.