It is probably no news to any Metal listener that H.P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu pseudo-mythos are a big inspiration for Metal musicians - it just fits the kind of emotions and the grandeur that the music aims to evoke. The German blackened Death-Metallers SULPHUR AEON, whose third album "The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos" came out at the very end of the last year, are a fine example of what I'm talking about. Instead of actual religion they write songs about the Great Old Tentacled Ones and even their logo has tentacles on it together with the inverted crosses that adorn many a Black Metal band's logo.

SULPHUR AEON could be best compared to bands like BEHEMOTH or HATE, especially in their more meditative, atmospheric moments. The "blackened" and the Death elements in their music are nicely balanced in their music: atmosphere is a big part of their music, as are riffs and melody. The glue that blends these elements together are great songwriting chops and the result are songs of a monumental scope. The album is over 50 minutes long and most of the songs are between six and seven minutes long, so there is ample space to build up to towering peaks and descend into deep gorges.

The first song "Cult of Starry Wisdom" has a mid-tempo start, with somber, ritualistic chanting (this ritualistic chant really sets the tone for the album), but the intensity picks up after a bit. This more intense part has a quite monumental chorus, after a bridge the song returns full-cycle to the more atmospheric vibe with which it started and ends with an emotional lead guitar melody. "Yuggothian Spell", the shortest piece here (just above five minutes), comes in full-intensity right form the start, then suddenly slows down before in builds up again to high levels of intensity (the fiercer parts obviously sound a bit like BELPHEGOR or BEHEMOTH, but because of the melody I'm also often reminded of NILE).

"The Summoning of Nyarlathotep" is a nice example of how good the songwriting on this album can be, because the finale, to which the song builds up is so thunderous and emotional. Like in many other songs the solo here is also really tasteful - it is not ostentatious at the expense of emotion. The longest song (almost 9 and a half minutes) comes in the middle of the album. It shifts between high-intensity parts and mid-tempo parts with a nice groove and a thick atmosphere. The closer "Thou shalt not speak his Name (The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos)" is the last song that I'm going to mention: the intensity of emotions is very high throughout this song - from the fast tremolo picked riffing in the beginning to the melancholic outro. One gets the sense that everything culminates with this song, which is a perfect way to structure an album.

The impression that this album made on me is that of cold perfection (): the songwriting, the melodies, the atmosphere, everything is great, but I must say that this didn't reach me too much on a visceral level. The stellar quality of the music makes the album really enjoyable and I'm sure that many readers will feel blown away by SULPHUR AEON.