"Candles", the latest Black Metal beast from the Greek band DIABLERY is over an hour of blistering blast beats, suffocating atmosphere, grinding riffs and ferocious vocals. A near non-stop barrage, the album is impressive in its scope and execution, wonderfully written and composed epics, produced well with a nice dense mix and perfectly balanced melody, atmosphere and dissonance.

The torturous scream and opening thrust of blasts that sets off the albums first track "Three Torches Lit" introduces us to the unbridled animosity of the album. The song rattles through sequences with barely a pause for breath. Everything from the production side of things to the instrumentation and song writing bursts with atmosphere, an undercurrent of reverb clashes with a cascade of raw energy giving every blast and riff its own personality. Track leans more into the melody and atmosphere, adding in new elements with the guitar acting as its own vocal line. Strip away the drums and vocals and this song would still be just as effective for those guitar lines. Tremolo playing that offers a dynamic range which is flawlessly matched by the drums, opens into stretches of sustained notes that sway like leaves in the wind, so much power being held in every note movement. The track ends with a nice, progressive drum movement of different length bars and increasing intensity, whilst the vocals roar and the guitar gets shriller, culminating in one last burst of blasts.

"The Earth Covered My Face" plays out like a Blackened Death track, opening with a solo of drums, rapid bass pedal and a quarter note snare, in a very thrash sound. When the guitars hit, we return to the classic chaotic blast beats, the accented crashes and beating of the snare, in tandem with the disorderly vocals all adding to the pandemonium. Throughput the album the band demonstrate a knack for creating orderly chaos, be it through having lots of notes in a short space of time or overlapping sounds, but not once does it feel messy or illegible, but a controlled riot of heavy Black Metal.

The album is a bit of a war of attrition with unwavering tremolo guitars, relentlessly quick blast beats and vicious vocals, grinding down on you for a long period of time. The songs do lack variation with a lot of blending but listened to individually each one is a masterclass in good Black Metal writing and performance. The atmosphere is great throughout with the more lo-fi mix giving the chaos some tranquillity. A good album bursting with talent with a whole lot to offer.