This is ARVAS, when i first got the promo i was just thinking, dude, Black Metal. I like Black Metal mainly because it can span from old school DARKTHRONE and BURZUM to stuff like MERCYFUL FATE and PRIMORDIAL and even add plenty of other subgenres for fusion genres like Doom-Black, Blackened Death (GOATWHORE, BEHEMOTH) ans Progressive Black (ENSLAVED) but don't get your hopes up, this is Black Metal, straight and solid old school Black Metal, so sit back and let me tell you all about what to expect from "Black Satanic Mysticism" from ARVAS

Where to begin? The drums, blastbeats, very consistent and definitely very old and typical Black Metal. The guitars, distorted, also consistent and just constant chords. Bass? Inaudible (shocker). Last but not least, vocals, very harsh very much along the lines of what Maniac had to offer in MAYHEM and very much not my cup o' tea. Here's the problem, my main draw is vocals and I keep very open minded with vocals, hell my favourite vocalists span from Classic Rock to Power Metal to Black and Death Metal, but I'm very specific about what I like and it just so happens that screaming into a mic at the top of your lungs with not much rhyme or reason (or pronunciation) isn't it. Now I will give "Beholder Of Demons" some praise here, the guitar solo although brief is pretty good and at the end there's a cool brief drum solo that makes you take a double take. Other then that, the album doesn't have a whole lot of draw in my taste.

Now you can see what my taste is, if you disagree with me then hey, maybe you'll like this album more than I did. If you agree with my tastes, you should still probably take a gander simply because what you like specifically is probably much different than I. There's not a whole lot more to say than that, its Black Metal, it didn't quite tickle my fancy and it doesn't hold my interest long enough to want to sit here and bullshit my way through an album I don't enjoy enough to talk more about, sorry.