FACELESS ENTITY is a raw black metal band from the Netherlands. "The Great Anguish of Rapture" is their second full length album; they have also released four demos. According to their bandcamp page, the band "contemplates life and death and wants the listener to " give in to the fear of the unknown and let that fear wreak mental havoc on your psyche." If that sounds rather esoteric to you, that's probably because it is. This album, interesting as it may be, is certainly not an easy experience. Their overall sound is hopeless and misanthropic but also razor sharp searing like a heat knife's edge-deadly black metal abounds. As mentioned above, the album is very raw and as dark as the music. It is also slower paced-definitely funeral doom elements live among the blackened rot. There isn't any epic keyboard solos or unconventional usage of instruments.

The atmosphere resides solely on the darkness of the vocals and the bleakness of the music. Actually it thrives upon it. With that being said, this isn't an album you can just pick up and play when you feel like a jamming out. I love black metal and doom, in all its forms, is my favorite genre  but even I had to be in a certain mood before I could spend time with it. But it isn't a bad album and if your patience and the needed mental facilities to face this sync up, a rewarding experience awaits. Of course, any music of this type suffers from the same problems: every song sounds about the same. That can be a good or bad thing, depending on your experience. If you like the opening track, odds are the rest of the album will tickle your apocalyptic fancy. However, if it doesn't grab you after that then the rest of the album will offer little value. This is very much an album that you will listen to or won't-very little middle ground to be found here. I'm not saying that is a bad thing but it is also something that needs to be made aware of. But I'm sure the band wouldn't like it any other way.

This harrowing and somewhat frightening musical experience isn't meant to be enjoyed by the masses. People don't make music like this to appeal to a large crowd and those who enjoy it wouldn't want it to have mass appeal anyway. The title track begins the album-it is immediately abrasive with a wall of raw riffs and deep bass tones turning the song into a journey in the dark that is filled with all manner of unseemly things. The vocals are impressive-truly depraved and a mind fuck.  There isn't really a lot of different movements in this song... It is miasma, just floating through the air and suffocating all it approaches.

The third track  "The Enigma of Death," speeds up the tempo but doesn't lose any of the creepiness from earlier. Imagine facing something you didn't understand but knew it could read into your very soul-and you just cannot stop this approaching storm. Have that whole scenario in your brain now? Well this song is the soundtrack to that. The final track, "Death, a Rot Beneath the Mask of Existence," is the best track on the album. It is one of the darkest songs I've heard this year too. The vocals are the shrieks of a broken down human, the blackened energy rides over the current of death filled waters from hell itself. As the seconds tick by, it feels like the song is clawing its way up to me, from an unfathomable void. FACELESS ENTITY's "The Great Anguish Of Rapture" isn't an album that I would think every metalhead would want to hear but it is one that should be experienced, regardless.