Hailing from the cold, wintery plains of...oh, my mistake. GNOSIS OF THE WITCH are a Black Metal band from the United States, formed in 2013. The band's second EP of 2014, "Dauðr Burðr Þrysvar," dropped this August.

The fun doesn't start until after the three-minute intro, "Ek Bjóða Inn." "Ormar Eitr" opens with a sinister, clean guitar melody before unleashing a vicious torrent of icy riffs. From the nearly indecipherable vocals and tin-can production of the album to the raw, hellish onslaught of band's gritty guitar attack and absolutely battering drumming, "Dauðr Burðr Þrysvar" is without a doubt a Black Metal fan's Black Metal album/EP. The band talks the talk, too, with a Facebook description that states "Our devotion, and total worship of its dark majestic mysteries of black magick, and creation of deformed hordes of ravenous beasts as they tear through the cosmic veil is the perfect representation of what this band stands for." If anything, they're really into what they do, and it shows in their music as well as their ethos.

While it's not overly adventurous musically, it doesn't feel lacking in creativity, either, and the continuity of the music is such that each song transitions from one to the other seamlessly, as if they are all one song but performed in different movements. The bombastic beginning of "Svartr Úlfar Blóð" quickly transforms to a hypnotic, synth-driven trance before exploding with pure Black Metal fury at its conclusion. "Dauðiþursar Seiðr" expands on this approach but with a greater variety of textures and melodies, and makes for some good listening, particularly for those interested in more than simple-minded brutality.

One thing I'm not a fan of is the inclusion of intro/outro tracks on EP's, particularly in Black Metal that have no actual music to them. It's not even a question of what is music and what isn't. It's just kind of a letdown to get an EP and already be thinking, "Gee, there's only four songs here, huh," and then you play it and there's even less than that. Plus, for a band with as limited a discography as GNOSIS OF THE WITCH, whose only other recorded work is the 17-minute EP "Rún Af Inn Auðr," it just doesn't really help the listener get much better of a felling for the band or what they're about. I heard enough promise on "Dauðr Burðr Þrysvar" that I would recommend GNOSIS OF THE WITCH as a band to pay attention to for fans of pure, old school Black Metal, but this release is little more than an appetizer for what may be yet to come.<