Alaska, the vast tundra of the Americas. Home to the young Black Metal outfit EGO. Here today we have their debut EP "Predation". The artwork for this appears to show a pack of wolves looking menacingly onto penned sheep, a perfect depiction to the EP's title.

Opening the release is "To Look For Sheep" which wastes no time in throwing us into the deep end of brutal riffs, relentless energy and aggressive guttural vocals. But this is not Black Metal as you may necessarily stereotype it. The music is dissonant, the structure confusing and to be honest, after a strong start, it just seems to get a bit sloppy and confusing. "Curse Of Consciousness" again comes in with a solid introduction, and the riffage seems to meld better, but I cannot help feeling that there is something slightly missing, the bones are there, it's just missing some of the meat. That being said, within the latter half of the track there is development and the depth I felt that was missing came through.

"Malice Aforethought" seems to renege once again, throwing structure to the wind. I get the impression now that this is a desired effect from EGO. I can understand this, as some bands have used this to great effect... But I am just not feeling that right now with this. Again, that is not to say that this is poor, there are individual flourishes of fantastic stuff, the guitar licks in the background, the strong and untiring drumline and those hellish vocals. Finally, "Gouging Out The Third Eye" pulls together everything from throughout the EP in a final flourish throwing out a fast, aggressive and superb finish to the EP, it left me as a listener just wanting more.

Overall, it's a solid debut. The dissonance and lack of structure detracted slightly for me, but that's not to say that the pure, raw aggression and passion that is evident in the music is not enjoyable. If you're looking for something that you can slam some headphones on to listen to, or even at a live show just throw yourself around breathlessly, then look no further than EGO.