I struggled with this one too, enough that I really don't think I'm going to give it any more chances even though I'm not going to give it a low score. The atmosphere and riffs are disgustingly good, but man, those vocals combined with the extended song structures just didn't do it for me. I have issues with the more "possessed" style of Black Metal vocals and this one really, really highlighted that for me. I love the dark, ritualistic atmosphere, but having it forcibly thrust down my throat for an hour straight by the vocalist just gets straight up annoying to me, especially in "Vintage Black Magic" and "The Devil Intimate".
Tried my best to get past my bias on this one, since the rest of the album is admittedly amazing, but this one isn't for me. I'll have to come back to this in a month or so to see if it still rubs me the wrong way.
3.5/5
