Taiwanese-based symphonic black metal band Anthelion (幻日) knows all about the travails of time. Active for over a decade, the band's original members - vocalist Code Tsai (è"¡å…ƒç¿), drummer Troy Liu (劉晏é‚') and guitarist Zeist Tseng (曾Ś揚) - have put everything they have into taking Anthelion as far as it can possibly go. Formed in 2001, it took six years of "cutting through steel," as Charles Bukowski put it, to get the band's first full-length album, Bloodshed Rebefallen (沐血再臨), into people's hands. That was in 2007. It might not seem like all that long ago, but in terms of Taiwan's nascent metal scene, that's eons past, especially in terms of studio production.

What Anthelion had with Bloodshed Rebefallen was a world-beater of an album with production value that stands amongst that of similar-minded bands like Norway's Dimmu Borgir or England's Cradle of Filth - bands that have seen many years pass since they last had to punch a clock and do music on the side. What Anthelion had with Bloodshed Rebefallen was a statement, and that statement was that they were serious about taking their music to the next level - taking a run at the world stage.

Now, seven years later, the band is reaffirming that statement with its highly anticipated sophomore release, Obsidian Plume (é»'ç¾½), its title track promising a densely layered mix of dark poetry, epic storytelling and haunting, ethereal melodies alongside a framework of crushing, rapid fire black metal alternate pick riffing.

Live footages montage:

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