What happens when you see the list with the promos that we have to write about, and somewhere in the middle you see a band that you don't know who they are, what they are playing and - to make a long story short - don't have a clue about anything and their MySpace page doesn't help you much, but you see the word ambient and you have the virus to explore new bands? Exactly! You take the CD for a review.

So SUN OF THE BLIND, not the most inspired name in my opinion, is the child of Zhaaral, guitar player of the ambient Black metallers DARKSPACE. The bio of this one-man band is one of the most poor I've ever seen, so there is almost nothing else to write except that he came up with this project after three difficult years for him and that he had some help from Roberto Mammarella (MOMENTUM) as far as the samples and some sythns concern.

The atmosphere of the album is not that far from DARKSPACE. But only this, since the tempo of this album is slower than this in his main band. To give you a more clear view of the music in Skullreader' - since the words ambient, atmospheric and the phrase Gothic Rock (don't be afraid with that one!) can be misjudged because they can mean 1,.000 different things - it is something between KATATONIA and TIAMAT's early days. The melodies of this album will make you travel in your weirdest and dark dreams. Sometimes Zhaaral's ideas come outside the restricted Death/Black scene and the combination between the mid tempo drumming, the black-ish keyboards and the mysterious yet mournful lead guitar lines surely work for the best in this album. The vocals are deep, growling and full of pain, even though the lyrics are not more than two or three lines per track. But the album flows very easily that you won't even understand that the tracks have lengths from seven to ten minutes. And this is good for albums of that genre.

This CD was surely a nice surprise. Well played ambient Black Metal with influences from the atmospheric sound in general; Skullreader is an album for everyone that seeks for nice dark and hollow music. It may remind the music of DARKSPACE but it has more progressive elements. And I'll give extra kudos for the beautiful paper case and the cover of the CD.

P.S.: The album will be released in a numbered limited edition (150 copies) named Obsidian Snake Eye, only available - as usual - from www.sound-cave.com.