Mythological images on the cover, a weird name whose origin is totally unknown to me, huge song lengths... It can't be something else than Black Metal! And how right I was! Rising from the ashes of ETERNAL DARK, the Australian black metallers ARKHETH attack with their sophomore full-length album.

The Australian trio (now duet judging from the band's Myspace page) travels the listener through its minimalistic, cold, dark, epic hallways with monotonous (in a good way) guitars, shrieking melancholic, yet aggressive vocals and a background that fits like a glove to the whole concept. Yes, the band isn't anything amazing since we are talking about classic cold Black Metal here, but it definitely has all the above mentioned elements in its sound, all filtered through its own unique "atmospheric" perception of darkness. The tempo variations also add some extra interest to the music, since mid tempo grim melodies withdraw to be swallowed by relentless blasts and frozen riffs. These guys seem to have gathered all their Black Metal influences, from classic old school Black Metal, to symphonic, even the retro Rock & Roll style Black Metal attitude (check out the killer riff in "Where The Wind Blows Ether") and have created their own personal hell.

The only negative thing that can be found in here, is the duration of the album, since both CD's have an approximate duration of 1 hour and 53 minutes. It is definitely hard to keep the listener's attention for so long (even though this album has some kind of vibe that drags you into it) and ARKHETH lose it at some parts. The fact is that the Australian priests of torment deliver a "full" album that will probably be an adequate addition to every blackster's collection.

PS: The second CD fucking kills!