The time has finally come. After 5 years of impatient waiting - especially for myself - DODECAHEDRON are preparing to unleash their new, full-length album upon this world on March 17^th, 2017.

The band gained popularity with their debut self-titled full length album back in 2012, showcasing the true power of original, breathtaking avant-garde influenced Black Metal. They were formed in 2006 under the name of ORDER OF THE SOURCE BELOW, and played under that name until 2011, before changing it to DODECAHEDRON in 2011, and signing to the legendary Season Of Mist. The new record entitled "Kwintessens" is a record many have waited for; and I can guarantee you that the wait will absolutely pay off.

The album clocks in at more than 40:00 minutes, and has 8 tracks with lengthy names, each somehow connected to the other and showcasing an amazing musical and lyrical journey. The first "track" is the short, buzzing, inaudible intro entitled "Prelude". Although it's just an instrumental track, it does have a certain beauty to it. We are still a bit far from experiencing new music when "Tetrahedron - The Culling of the Unwanted from the Earth" comes on (this was also one of the first tracks that we had the pleasure of listening before the album's initial release); still, it is a perfect track to break the silence we previously heard in the intro. It enters with a sick, twisted and classic Black Metal scream, with semi understandable growling techniques, whilst still remaining mostly scream-based. The melodies are incredible, almost all lyrics are understandable (if you pay attention), the riffs are bizarre, "unorganised" in a way this band likes to play them, and the overall atmosphere is incredible. The vocals never bore you, but keep your attention alongside the entire track with their powerful energy. However, this track isn't the one that truly showcases the album's overall energy (since it's a bit raw), but wait for the rest!

 "Hexahedron - Tilling the Human Soil" comes on, and oh my, this is the perfect track I was waiting for. Yes, I know we all heard it previously on Youtube, but it remains one of my favourites with its incredible, dominant, avant-garde sound, its nasty vocals - which aren't too raw as on the previous track, but a bit more organised, a bit darker, but still absolutely on point. The drums, the riffs, the bass(!), everything is crystal clean, and I almost wish I had an instrumental version of this album; no offence to the vocals though, they are amazing in their own way. This track is slightly more dominated by the instrumentation rather than the vocalisations, and it showcases the true power of all 5 members. This track, being one of the longer ones, is still amazing and a truly breathtaking one, its amazing atmosphere can without a doubt put one to sleep.

"Interlude", the fourth track, is a pretty amazing one also; and way more different than any other so far. It reminds a little bit of the intro track, but it's still way more melodic, deep, and dark, without any echoing voices in the background. Its amazing how the band has managed to rise up so fast with their incredibly original sound since their formation, and since their early years when they had two singles entitled "Allfather" & "Vanitas" (ANAAL NATHRAKH, anyone?).

The fourth track is short but amazing, and it pushes us unto the fifth one entitled "Octahedron - Harbinger". This track is incredibly powerful, and it even has some various growling techniques; somewhat different from those previously heard, but still they are never stronger than the Black Metal-oriented vocals, but they just silently remain in the background, only sometimes managing to jump into the mix. I need to highlight this track because it's the second one I actually had the pleasure of hearing before the album's release; and it's an utterly experimental one, being a bizarre and weird one, with a lot of experimenting vocals going on. The riffs are "jumpy", a bit unorganised (but the band is 100% aware of that), and they are really good at what they are doing. I'm still enjoyed the track, and its sometimes fast, sometimes absolutely slow, all just so it can change speed once again, and that's why I love it. It still isn't my favourite one, but I like it.

With DEATHSPELL OMEGA releasing their new album "The Synarchy of Molten Bones" in late 2016, and DODECAHEDRON releasing ''Kwintessens" in early 2017, this is surely going to be an amazing year. Not sure if they like being compared to them - even if their genre is similar - they still play it uniquely in their own ways, and being that the DEATHSPELL OMEGA record was a bit shorter, I still liked it, but(!) not more than the new one by these guys. It's only March, but I already think that I have found my top album of the year. I'm not close-minded though, if they manage to release another one, that might beat this one.

The latest, and I assume last single before the album's release was the sixth track "Dodecahedron - An Ill-Defined Air of Otherness", which (surprisingly) starts with an upbeat harmony, and ends up being a bit ambient-oriented, with a happy melody added to it in the start. Then the drums start playing and hell gets loose. Incredibly weird, raging vocals enter the scene, and I instantly fell in love with them - being that I adore weird stuff. This vocal type is a bit "depressive" - it's high pitched, understandable, and it gets mixed with the much lower, classic Black Metal vocals, but that's not all, some growling ones can be heard also. At some point, the instruments get completely quiet, leaving nothing but the haunting vocals to dominate the atmosphere, and at the first half of the track, even the vocals get toned down to absolute noise-based silence and ambient influences dominate the track's overall atmosphere. Not for long though! Everything comes back to its original place - the brutal vocals, the fast drums, the riffing, everything starts dominating again, and jeez, it's incredibly brutal. So far this is my favourite track, with its unique bizarreness.

"Finale" comes on with just inaudible noise, echoing voices in the background, and more buzzing noise; although I don't mind, I enjoy such things too, as far as they don't go on for too long. It is obvious that this blood-chilling track was meant to be an intro to the last one, the eight, and FINAL track entitled " Icosahedron - The Death of Your Body", and I must say, I have finally found my favourite track, and it came as a complete surprise; I didn't even know that the band had prepared a final, brutal punch in their last track. I must say: this track isn't as brutal as the previous ones, not even that fast, so you might ask why it is so brutal? The reason is almost un-describable, but I'll give it a shot. When you'll have a chance to listen to it, you'll see how even without any dominant vocals and instruments, this band truly knows how to make incredibly horrifying music with incredible atmosphere added to it, and that's exactly why this track is so incredible. The atmosphere is the key, and the band lacks none of that "Kwintessens".

I'll recommend you a few bands to get started with DODECAHEDRON (if you've never heard of them) such as: BLUT AUS NORD, ULCERATE, TERRA TENEBROSA, however, they still need to be experienced as something you would not expect, because they are truly an amazing and unique musical group on the Black Metal scene, and that's why you should totally give them and their new record a try! It's a must if you're a fan of music that is bizarre and will give nightmares to old and new generations. Long live DODECAHEDRON!