Review by Felix on August 14, 2022.

Blackhorned from Denmark have released a couple of albums that contain a well executed mix of fairly extreme metal. Its main ingredients consist of medium-fast black metal, atmospheric or even epic and melancholic sequences and an extra slice of thrash metal. The throaty, gargling voice intensifies the dark aura. Therefore, I think that Blackhorned feels comfortable when being classified as a (more or less) typical black metal band. Well, the term "band" should be used with care. Lone wolf Atziluth has created the here described album on its own. He wrote the songs, played all instruments and recorded, produced, mixed and mastered the album. Only the lyrics of eight tracks are based on the poems of a person called Stine Hoppe. However, in view of the convincing result, Atziluth seems to be a real allrounder. It is worthwhile to take a deeper look at "Lost in a Twilight World".

Let me pick out two songs in order to describe the musical range of the record. "Embraced by Shrouds" demonstrates the craggy side of Blackhorned. It´s a fast-paced, powerful thrasher, embedded in a deep black atmosphere. The guitar delivers sharp riffs as well as short melodic parts that do not lack of pressure. If you need something that helps you to lose aggression, this song may be the right choice. The opener "Floating Darkness" tends towards an other direction. This mid-tempo number is dominated by a dreamy yet scary atmosphere. Thrash metal elements do not show up, while keyboards emphasize the somewhat unreal aura of the song. So it turns out an opener for quiet connoisseurs; but to listen to this tune is surely not an appropriate way to reduce aggressions.

Atziluth provides a varied program. Despite of that, it does not happen often that he varies the tempo within the songs. All of them follow a straight path from beginning to end. Nevertheless, the album never gets boring, because the guitar work is just brilliant. On the one hand, it is aggressive, razor-sharp and edgy. On the other hand, it is melancholic, emotional and widely sweeping. It´s always depending on what the individual composition needs. The result shows that Atziluth seems to be able to express his feelings musically in a very good manner. And what´s more, he proves that he has understood and internalized the black quintessence of the here presented metal subgenre.

The lyrics deal with the usual topics. Some of them underline perfectly the effect of the music ("You will see the feeling of pain / As you wander / Through the woods of twilight"), but sometimes they are naive at best while delivering sick violent fantasies ("To cut out your tongue / In one sharp cut"). If there is nothing else to say, he should have written an instrumental piece. However, I do not care about this kind of shabby poetry as long as the music enthralls me. This is the case - with the exception of the last tune. Due to its ponderousness, it is too long for an outro and too lame for a regular track. But I can live with that minor flaw, because on an overall basis, this album scores with its bombastic song material as well as with its dark and dense sound. (Nevertheless, you do not need to appreciate the green vinyl of the limited edition. It´s really very green!) If you like to listen to bands such as Vargsang, you will also enjoy the comparable sound of Blackhorned.

Rating: 8.2 out of 10

Review by Adam M on April 16, 2026.

This is another heavy album in the band’s discography that sits nicely alongside albums like Demigod and Evangelion.  It is grimy and has a Morbid Angel type nature that makes it compelling.  The tunes are very well produced and punchy and this makes the album stand out in an aggressive manner.  It is still not as consistent as the other mentioned albums, but still very good.

The musicianship is solid with strong guitar playing and a vocal performance that is quite powerful.  There is a constant need to be punishing and this is augmented by a reasonable production job.  The entire album is perhaps some of the band’s most consistent work musically and is very poignant and impactful.  The instruments are strong and fit nicely together.

The flaw with the album is that it isn’t better than other albums like Evangelion and Demigod and one will be drawn to those albums more because they are more innovative and interesting.  This is still very good stuff and one of the better death metal albums you’ll hear.  Songs like “As Above, So Below” are very memorable.

This is all in all a strong album that fits in nicely into the band’s discography and is very addictive in its own right.  It is not better than a couple of their other albums, but still very strong and one you shall come back to time and time again.  It is powerful and one of the better death metal releases one will ever happen to listen to.

Rating: 7.3 out of 10

Review by Michael on December 28, 2002.

This album is angry. This album is brutal. This album is aggressive. "Zos Kia Cultus" is the album to put smiles on all the metal tough death fans across the globe this Christmas (as apt as religious sentiment can be when dealing with a band famed for song titles such as 'Antichristian Phenomenon' and 'Christians to the Lions') Behemoth with the release of this album have now most definitely claimed their place as one of the most powerful, brutal and technical death bands in the scene at the moment.

To the non-discerning death fan, this album is simply fast and heavy. "Zos Kia Cultus" from start to finish is a relentless assault on the senses. Behemoth seem to have a never ending array of crushing guitar riffs, driving drum beats and aggression filled vocals. With "Zos Kia Cultus", Behemoth have definitely raised the bar as to what should be the standard in the genre. The most interesting part to the evolution of this band is the subtlety in which they have achieved the change. On first listen the album is right on track with previous releases, but upon listening a little harder and paying a little more attention you can see that Behemoth have matured very nicely since Thelema.6. Strangely melody has become a force in their music. I’m not talking about melody like In Flames but really hard infections and fast melody lines sitting in and alongside crushing riffs to add a smooth element that was not present before and is a very nice progression in style indeed.

Production wise "Zos Kia Cultus" is also far superior to not only past recordings, but many of the other bands who share the genre. The drums are massive and very clear considering the speed at which they are being played. That seems to be a common floor in death recordings is the lack of care taken to mix the drums and you end up with the classic wall of noise that makes no sense to anyone. The guitars are very big too, a lot more bottom end has been put into them creating an altogether larger sound and the vocals have also been perfected. If anything I’d say they are sitting too high in the mix and are quite overpowering at times, which takes away from the very impressive musicianship in the background.

Bottom Line: This is a hard, fast, heavy and very technical death metal album indeed. Behemoth while not covering new ground with this CD, have produced a very strong and powerful recording that will sit well with death metal fans everywhere.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 8.5
Production: 9
Originality: 7
Overall: 9

Rating: 8.5 out of 10