The history of SPELL OF DARK began in December 2009 during a night in the cold southern desert, in Astrakhan, Russia. Its founder, V T, also participates in other bands. The main idea behind the project is to show the beauty of nature, and to allow V T to express the state of his soul through music.

The eight-minute "The Breath of Cold Silence" leads off the album. A bleak opening guitar riff is soon joined by blast beat kick drums and cold, whispered Black Metal vocals. The production is muted, as you might expect, created a muddy mid-section. Ominous backing vocal chants really ground this song as a harrowing affair. The sound drops off to a singular guitar at about the five-minute mark, and the song takes a bit of a turn. It ends with the desolate roar of winter winds. "Frozen Lands and Horizons" is another slower song that builds the depths of darkness in melancholy layers. At the same time, there is just enough of a heaviness to it to counterbalance the competing elements of light and dark...good and evil. The balance struck here is really one of the best features.

"Light of Winter" is shorter in length and features some alluring piano notes. The vocals seem to carry forward and dissipate around you as a strong breeze would, chilling you and then passing you by. The despondent elements are still present and create a hopeless feeling, as the slow drone of the song wears you down with a mesmerizing passage of time. The culmination at the end is wonderful, even in its abruptness. "The World of Unearthly Dreams" uses a pretty keyboard melody that seems to signal the end of days. It is joined by solitary guitar notes that sound like bells ringing out in a subdued warning. Though the 16-note bar is repeated throughout, it still hits the mark, registering as the kind of dirge that would mark the passing of all that is holy.

Overall, it's a powerful and moving album that really does seem to reflect the soul of the composer, as well as the stark images of winter, that can be both vivid and desolate at the same time. Cold can be absolutely numbing. Snow can be both glorious and destructive. Winter can last for what seems like forever. The whispered vocals seem to play with these themes the best; harsh screams might have take it to a different level. The subdued sound is one that works best in the quietness of your solitude, giving you pause to reflect. But a word of warning: too much contemplation into your dark side could consume you.