From Bandcamp, LOMSK is a black metal entity from Gothenburg, Sweden, formed in 2022. Their latest work, "Act II - Of Iron and Blood," moves away from the creative destruction of their debut and dives straight into the wreckage. It's a grim, nihilistic look at a world choked by smoke and violence. Rome is burning, the towers are falling, and LOMSK is marching through the ruins." The album has nine songs, and "Fields of Elysium" is first. Heavy and aggressive tones with raging harsh vocals come out of the date, but it's not without somber melodies interwoven between. Like quicksand, it's thick, and mucky, and if you stepped forward to challenge it, you would sink into the darkness. The title track is another dreadful affair. Although there is a fast and aggressive base, and they run it at a steady eight instead of five, subtle melodies and a sense of the end of the world temper them.

"Entropia" brings a doomsday in a reaper robe with it, and the minute he catches your gaze, it's over. The music is thick and tense and the vocals are somber. Entropia represents a measure of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty within a system, and that uncertainty causes the reaction you have with the music. In Greek mythology, a "Chimaera" is a fire breathing beast from the Underworld; a female monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail. If you can picture the beast, you can picture it pillaging and plundering by burning everything in sight. The song's tones reflect that might and power, and that destruction. "Stare into the Void" is as frightening of an exercise as it sounds. Some say you can see forever. Others say the blackness is startling. Dreadful, somber, but angry tones supply much of the song's feeling.

"Furia" is a nine-minute opus, of disease, death, and hopelessness, and the weight of the vocals carries this feeling forward. Each step, each movement forward, seems arduous and the task of reaching your destination monumental. "The Silence Thereafter" is the final song, and it's a cool down, as the war machine leaves the area taking every plane, ship, and infantry member with it. What is left is utter destruction…burned out fields, scorched towns reduced to ash, all wildlife gone. It's a fitting way to end the album. This was an excellent album, combining some of the aggression of Black Metal with the sometimes doom and gloom of despair. The album expresses deep sorrow, grief, or regret…often in a way that feels emotional and heavy, and that feeling is something you just can't shake listening to the album.