Blood of Kingu - Sun in the House of the Scorpion (2010)^{Release ID: 10182}

Blood Of Kingu is a solo project from Roman Saenko who is well know for his work under various different names such as Hate Forest, Dark Ages & Drudkh. Roman's second release under the Blood Of Kingu moniker, entitled "Sun In The House Of The Scorpion", is one beast of an album. It's great to hear black metal with this kind of aggression but also with a fair dose of atmosphere. The vocals in particular are some of the most powerful I have heard in a long time. They almost sound inhuman & are far closer to a death metal growl than your traditional black metal shriek. I have absolutely no idea what is being said & I find it strange that no lyrics are available as I had read about the projects interesting subject matter.

The epic "Incantation Of He Who Sleeps" is the highlight track with it's incredibly powerful mid-paced first five minutes giving way to some ferocious blasting in the second half. The sound is generally pretty good for this style of music & presents the instrumentation well. My only gripe with this release is that the musicianship is not as strong as it could have been. I'd just like to see everything tightened up a bit. I'd also like to see more of the powerful mid-paced sections instead of a constant blast feast. The tribal interludes could be incorporated into the overall sound a bit better too. As they are, they seem almost out of place surrounded by the rest of the material. Regardless, if you like your black metal of the raw & ferocious variety then this release should satisfy your tastes nicely.