How long can a band be on hiatus before you consider them split? The answer is at least 15 years. Australia's Black Metal duo, HUNTERS MOON, formed in 2006 and released their demo the same year. A few years later they issued their debut, self-titled EP. They then hit the pause button until November 26, 2021 when the HUNTERS MOON once again rose above the unsuspecting city of Melbourne and released what is really a quite impressive full-length album, "The Great Pandemonium."

"The Great Pandemonium" comprises eight tracks and has full runtime of just over 39 minutes. The album cover features a burning city with a winged entity making its way to said city across a long ass bridge. The entire image is washed out in a suitably burnt red. It's unclear if the winged entity is causing the ruin, heading over to relish in the destruction, or simply out for a leisurely stroll. Whatever the case, it draws one in and creates a vision that perfectly captures the ethos of the album itself.

Thematically, the tracks all tie in very well with the cover art-talons, destruction, death, even a bridge over chaos. There are massive distorted riffs, razored tremolos, hellborne vocals, and furious blast beats. Lyrically, these songs aren't about unrequited love and the splendors of nature . . . more like unrelenting hate and the horrors of hell spilling over earth. Track by track, the album walks you through the unfolding of the great pandemonium from the initial onslaught, to exile and rebellion, to the final aftermath.

There a lot of good things about this album, namely eight solid tracks, but I do want to mention I especially like the variation throughout. Now, I'm not saying you're going to find Stoner, Prog, and Doom tracks on this album-this is deep fusion of Thrash and Black Metal-but what you will find are varying tempos, emerging melodies that evolve into fully developed movements, motifs that pick up across multiple tracks. Excellent songwriting, that is.

Favorite tracks are "Torn by Talons," "Bridge Over Chaos," "Red Death," and "Drag Them to the Coffins." And as I write this it seems it's the second half of the album that really excels, though the first half is certainly with its merits. Altogether the only downside to this album is the length of time it took to get us from formation of this band to delivery of this artifact. Fifteen years is a but excessive, but here's hoping the next offering will drop a lot sooner and bring just as much glorious discord.