To be a review writer, sometimes, it's a matter of how you can face Metal or Rock styles without being astonished by something extremely different from what you're used to hear and understand. It's not a matter of liking or disliking a work, but to have an open mind and to be just with a band's work; that's the key to be a good writer. And let me tell you: to understand a band as the Dutch one man band GNAW THEIR TONGUES is not something too easy. Their album "Abyss of Longing Throats" is very different from usually see on Metal.

The band's work is into a Black Metal style made with many darkened experimentations like we hear on Italian Progressive project ANTONIUS REX, besides some songs are more aggressive and harsh. But to be honest, it's far away from what we hear from bands like MAYHEM or DARKTHRONE, and even far from BURZUM's experimentations. It's darkened and sometimes noisy, and to extreme Metal fans of a most more brutal approach can be boring, but when you get used, it becomes more and more lovely.

The sound quality is harsh. OK, it's a Black Metal album, and this quality really matches with their musical insight. To be crude and harsh and to keep your sound with a good understanding is not as simple as it seems, so there is sometimes when the songs become a bit confuse.

There are seven songs on the album, some of them lasting more than 6 minutes, but without a boring experience for our ears.

"Lick the Poison From the Cave Walls" (more experimental and with an atmospheric horror feeling), the aggressive "Abyss of Longing Throats" (a thundering Black Metal song with very good drumming and harsh voices), the slower and bitter "From the Black Mouth of Spite" and "Up into the Heavens Down into the Circles of Hell" can be pointed as some of their best moments.

A better sound quality really would turn the band's worked way better.