Last year, when DEAFHEAVEN came out with "Sunbather", it was one of the most divisive albums to come out in a while and it was also one of the best albums of 2013.

What made "Sunbather" so important is that it announced that the era of raw, unpolished, poorly produced Black Metal albums is at its End Times. The spirit of Black Metal refuses to be tied down to themes about cold weather, Satan and suicide. DEAFHEAVEN exemplified that it is possible to write Black Metal and still have a warm, glowing, melodic style that can appeal to a much larger audience. What DEAFHEAVEN did with "Sunbather" makes music made by the likes of STARS WILL BURN YOUR FLESH obsolete in this day and age.

Slovenia's STARS WILL BURN YOUR FLESH is just your run-of-the-mill Black Metal outfit that fails to be fresh or inspiring. The band consists mainly of one guy, N.V. a.k.a. Coldhand although technically there is another person involved (named J.P. on the album) credited toward the drums but he is clearly using a drum machine so he is only a button-pusher, not an actual drummer. "Heldraan's Domain" is just simply another band trying to do the same thing that Varg Vikernes did before he went to prison. I should also mention that he is no longer going to be making any more music as BURZUM which is another sign that Black Metal is overdue to evolve to something beyond what STARS WILL BURN YOUR FLESH sound like.

Getting down to brass tax, "Heldraan's Domain" is a monotonous album with piss-poor production. There are only two or three settings on their drums machine that get played and the guitar sounds terrible. Did Coldhand plug it directly into the mixing board? The vocals are equally as useless, with reverb levels that cover up the inability to scream.

I read that the two people that make up STARS WILL BURN YOUR FLESH came up with their own language for their previous albums so looking at the lyrics for these songs is another complete waste of your time. But who really cares what they are saying? They don't really have much to say anyways. Some of the sections of these songs sound like the band didn't even listen to this album very closely in post-production thus releasing "Heldraan's Domain" with many audio hiccups. You can hear very distinctly where the guitar strumming and drum machines lose sync with each other. Come on, STARS WILL BURN YOUR FLESH, at least try to care a little bit.

And just what exactly is up with this band's name? It doesn't make any sense! Maybe if they were called THE SUN WILL BURN YOUR FLESH or SUNS WILL BURN YOUR FLESH, at least there you can see why your flesh is being burnt.

I could put more words here to go on about how dismal and disposable this album is but I won't rub it in the band's face. There's just no excuse to make of music with such embarrassingly poor quality anymore.