With the passing of Baron Blood, NECROMANTIA has announced they have disbanded. Their final album, "To the Depths We Descend . . .," is the band's tribute to their fellow bandmate. The album was originally meant to be released in 2020 as an EP but was delayed until October 15, 2021 and expanded to full-length. It has been released across a number of labels: CD by The Circle Music, vinyl by Hell's Fire Records, and Rabauw Records for cassette. And, of course, you can find it via Bandcamp for digital.

For long-time fans of these Greek Black Metalists, "To the Depths We Descend . . ." probably won't rank near the top of the NECROMANTIA catalogue, but I don't think it was meant to serve that purpose. It's a tribute, not a run at carving themselves into the annals of Black Metal history-after all, they've pretty much already accomplished that.

The album comprises eight tracks, spanning 52 minutes. It includes riveting assaults as well as contemplative instrumentals. Lyrically, it's all evil and hellfire and damnation. Two of the tracks, "Lord of the Abyss MMXXI" and "The Warlock MMXXI," are re-recordings of from the band's 1993 album, "Crossing the Fiery Path." There're no deep philosophical examinations going on here, nor Prog-infused explorations . . . okay, well, maybe just a hint of the exploratory stuff, but as the cover art would suggest, this is mostly just evil metal.

As far as standout tracks go, the re-recordings are the best feature of the album. Other strong tracks include "And the Shadows Wept..." and "The Inferno." The instrumental, "Give the Devil His Due," didn't do anything for me initially, but I found myself going back to it over and over again. Yeah, so some cool experimentation going on there. Tribute or not, I probably could have done without the saxophone in "To the Depths We Descend . . . ," thought. Altogether, as an album "To the Depths We Descend . . ." is a befitting farewell to a Black Metal legend. And so, we conclude another great chapter of Black Metal history. As The Magus intones in the aptly named "And the Shadows Wept...": "Farewell my brother / Farewell my friend / Ride the Dragon / in the center of the Abyss / Your soul is now free."