Osmose Productions is a name that should strike a chord with Black Metal fans the world over. This legendary French label has been responsible for putting out some of the earliest recorded output from such well known and respected luminaries as ENSLAVED, IMMORTAL and SAMAEL, giving this bestial noise we now know and love as Black Metal much needed exposure. Alongside Deathlike Silence Productions and Candlelight Records, it was one of the labels that gave us some of the best, classic Black Metal records of the second wave. With this sort of pedigree, and the sort of stature that the label has with regards to building the genre's fan-base in Europe, the idea that this label would sign a band before they've released any material, even just a demo, is quite interesting. And indeed, this is what Osmose have done. The band in question is KHAOS DEI, a French Black Metal trio from Rouen, who formed in 2013. All it takes is one listen of the bands debut release, "Tell Them Lucifer Was Here", to see just why the band have been signed to such a prolific label so early in their career.

The eerie Ambient opening that is "Une Descente" really sets this record up very well. It's one of a few instrumental pieces that are used throughout the album to help break the record into sections. Complete with symphonic touches, this is an excellent way to draw the listener in before the album proper begins. When "Dans l'enfer plombant" starts, it's immediately clear just how good this band are. It's a slab of tight, blisteringly fast Black Metal with just enough rawness and atmosphere to make it sound epic. The guitar leads and the drums in particular sounds extremely vicious, and the acidic rasp of the vocals fits so perfectly with the music they accompany. Whereas the previous track was built around speed, "Puis le vide", at least in its opening seconds, is a much more mid-paced affair. It quickly picks up speed, but doesn't ever become as quick as its predecessor was. The guitar lines, as a result, have a thicker, fuller sound, and the vocals carry significantly more weight and depth. At just under a minute long, "Et l'univers" is built around a sinple piano melody, cloaked in atmospherics, setting us up nicely for "Loeil"; this is another ferocious piece of Black Metal which sounds cold and dark. The drumming on this really carries the music at certain points, and the guitar lines likewise sound amazing. This is straight down the middle, unpretentious Black Metal, and it is really, really good. "Mort naissance" follows this track in much the same way "Puis le vide" followed "Dans l'enfer plombant". By this I mean that it is a much slower offering. Although it picks up considerable speed as the track progresses, it sticks to the pattern set by the second and third tracks on here. By this point on the record, it's clear that there might be a pattern; we'll get an instrumental track, followed up by a fast track, swiftly followed by a mid-tempo piece. But this doesn't make this record predictable in any way; rather, it makes it feel as though the album is flowing through certain sections and it's taking you from one music extreme to the other. "Tout en bas", the third instrumental track, is a piece of genuinely creepy music with plenty of ambience that fills the listener to a little bit of dread.

By this point, we're about three quarters of the way through the record, but rather than wind down at this point, the music remains just as good. "Le chant des marais" carries the eerie qualities of the preceding track through into it, and it really helps to maintain the listeners attention at this late point in the album. The chanted vocals at the end of the song are also a really nice touch that makes this one of the album's most memorable tracks. The last full track on the record, "L'office du divin", is arguably the album's best. It utilises some more chanted vocals, a small detail that can really turn any good Black Metal track into a great one. It's a shame that the band have worked this kind of vocals into the album earlier on, or even more frequently, but this song is nonetheless a fitting climax to an excellent record. "Aneanti", the final instrumental piece, brings this album to its close in a strong, powerful wave of palpable atmospherics.

Like I stated at the beginning, it would take a lot for a well established and respected label to sign a band before they had a string of demos, EP's, splits and previous full lengths behind them. But KHAOS DEI aren't an ordinary band; it's clear that this album has been well thought out, and that the musicians involved are extremely talented and have a strong idea of what they want to make musically. Even though some might criticise them for breaking the album up too much with shorter pieces of music, I think it actually aids them more than it hinders. For a debut record, "Tell Them That Lucifer Was Here" is a great introduction to a band that is likely to go very, very far.