Good old Finland, over the past 15 years the country has become one of the biggest providers of quality Metal music in the world, producing more bands than anyone even cares to count, so I was instantly interested when handed the debut EP by Finland's INDOCTRINE, and one thing was clear from the get go, they certainly did not take after the Symphonic / Folk genres their countrymen have been so famous for.

Indeed INDOCTRINE are marching to a beat of a different drum, a far faster and heavier drum,The mellow and mostly acoustic intro may fool you at first, but do not succumb to the Folkish undertones as what comes next is something completely different, "Undying" is a heavy opener with a superbly fast and Thrashy riff running through the start of the track with a more melodic chorus complimenting it, however as the song progresses it visits the realms of Symphonic Black Metal, and that's where things start getting interesting, as the album seems to blend a mixture of Thrash, Death and Black Metal into one mold, with all the songs experiencing the rhythm and genre changes, making the record a far stranger beast than what I had initially expected. Leave it up to the Finns to make an album that seamlessly blends several genres and make it sound absolutely awesome.

Speaking of sound, the production is top notch; the sound is crisp and the mix well done with none of the musicians overtaking each other. Indeed, this may not be an album of the year candidate, but it's certainly worth checking out, and as a debut EP, it's almost perfect, I certainly couldn't find any faults.