In terms of Metal, Portugal was a country that stayed in silence for many years. But on the 90s, finally a famous name came from the lands of Tejo river: MOONSPELL. And after them, a lot of good names arose from there, as TERROR EMPIRE, SCAR FOR FILE, OPUS DRACONIS, all of them creating something new or just to make a very good work. Portugal became a country with a Metal scene that deserves a lot of respect. And now, it's time to speak about BLACK CILICE's new album, "Mysteries".

Imagine the most raw and darkened Black Metal that you can think of. Yes, this one man band really creates a very nasty and morbid music in the vein of the SWOBM, playing in the same vein of French LLN bands. Hearing this album is a darkened experience, a voyage to the most feared locations in our minds, if you know what I mean. The work has good guitar riffs, the keyboards are played with the intention to create a morbid atmosphere, the rhythmic kitchen is doing a good work, but due the quality, I barely heard/understood the vocals on the album (it seems some phantasmagoric howls in the same way Varg used to do in earlier BURZUM albums).

The sound quality is the greater problem here. Ok, Big Daddy here knows that some bands really needs to use the esthetics of "non-esthetics" on it, as Varg and Fenriz said on "Until the Light Takes Us" documentary, but here it's nasty to the point of some musical aspects are impossible to understand. As I said above, I have to make some efforts to recognize the vocals. Again: it's not a matter to sound as DIMMU BORGIR or as DARKTHRONE and BURZUM, but to use the recording you can think of, and in the best way possible.

There are six long songs (lasting about the mean value of 6 minutes), all of them with their own particularities, being the best moments "To Become" (very good riffs, some morbid howls and great tempo changes), the fast and darkened "Into Morbid Trance", and "Ceremonial Energy" (this one with a heavy grasp like from the Ancients bands of Norwegian Black Metal scene, like BURZUM and MAYHEM), and the slow funeral "From the Long Forgotten Past" with its morbid guitars.

A sound production with a better quality (just a bit better) can help a lot in the future, but for now, they have a good work.<