Review by Luka on September 15, 2001.

Slayer are probably the only remaining fathers of heavy metal who didn’t mellow with age. God may hate us all, but Slayer sure as hell don’t as they deliver one of the mightiest thrash albums of their career! This is the fastest and most violent record since "Reign in Blood"! It’s got the beats and sheer brutality (with a slight nu-metal influence) of the previous record but the band’s fast thrash and angry punk metal roots pulse and seethe throughout, breaking free at the most violent parts to create a face-ripping climax!

"God Hates Us All", how darkly ironic that thousands of Americans die by evil and terrorism on the very day of the release. Tom Araya’s screams firmly invigorate what we’re all surely thinking, if there is a God, then he does, indeed, hate us all. Anti-Christianism is the root of all the lyric themes, and the most blasphemous of all is the album cover (safety-censored for retail store sale) which shows a blood-spattered bible with Slayer burned into it and the pentagram nailed into it.

A few songs stand out but the album mainly keeps a solid front. Which can get slightly uninteresting after a time. Memorable are the verse lines to 'God Send Death' and 'Exile' while the blasts of 'New Faith' and 'War Zone' would make a dead head bang. If there are weak attributes to the record they are barely noticeable, this is the album Slayer fans have been waiting for. It’s not "Reign in Blood" but it comes closer to it than anything else they’ve ever done ("Payback" would fit quite nicely on it), this is the Slayer I’ve grown to love and I hope they keep this up.

Bottom Line: Face-ripping and mind-blowing violent! I’m impressed!

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Originality: 6
Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 8
Overall: 8

Rating: 7.6 out of 10

Review by Luka on September 15, 2001.

Slayer are probably the only remaining fathers of heavy metal who didn’t mellow with age. God may hate us all, but Slayer sure as hell don’t as they deliver one of the mightiest thrash albums of their career! This is the fastest and most violent record since "Reign in Blood"! It’s got the beats and sheer brutality (with a slight nu-metal influence) of the previous record but the band’s fast thrash and angry punk metal roots pulse and seethe throughout, breaking free at the most violent parts to create a face-ripping climax!

"God Hates Us All", how darkly ironic that thousands of Americans die by evil and terrorism on the very day of the release. Tom Araya’s screams firmly invigorate what we’re all surely thinking, if there is a God, then he does, indeed, hate us all. Anti-Christianism is the root of all the lyric themes, and the most blasphemous of all is the album cover (safety-censored for retail store sale) which shows a blood-spattered bible with Slayer burned into it and the pentagram nailed into it.

A few songs stand out but the album mainly keeps a solid front. Which can get slightly uninteresting after a time. Memorable are the verse lines to 'God Send Death' and 'Exile' while the blasts of 'New Faith' and 'War Zone' would make a dead head bang. If there are weak attributes to the record they are barely noticeable, this is the album Slayer fans have been waiting for. It’s not "Reign in Blood" but it comes closer to it than anything else they’ve ever done ("Payback" would fit quite nicely on it), this is the Slayer I’ve grown to love and I hope they keep this up.

Bottom Line: Face-ripping and mind-blowing violent! I’m impressed!

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Originality: 6
Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 8
Overall: 8

Rating: 7.6 out of 10

Review by Luka on September 15, 2001.

Slayer are probably the only remaining fathers of heavy metal who didn’t mellow with age. God may hate us all, but Slayer sure as hell don’t as they deliver one of the mightiest thrash albums of their career! This is the fastest and most violent record since "Reign in Blood"! It’s got the beats and sheer brutality (with a slight nu-metal influence) of the previous record but the band’s fast thrash and angry punk metal roots pulse and seethe throughout, breaking free at the most violent parts to create a face-ripping climax!

"God Hates Us All", how darkly ironic that thousands of Americans die by evil and terrorism on the very day of the release. Tom Araya’s screams firmly invigorate what we’re all surely thinking, if there is a God, then he does, indeed, hate us all. Anti-Christianism is the root of all the lyric themes, and the most blasphemous of all is the album cover (safety-censored for retail store sale) which shows a blood-spattered bible with Slayer burned into it and the pentagram nailed into it.

A few songs stand out but the album mainly keeps a solid front. Which can get slightly uninteresting after a time. Memorable are the verse lines to 'God Send Death' and 'Exile' while the blasts of 'New Faith' and 'War Zone' would make a dead head bang. If there are weak attributes to the record they are barely noticeable, this is the album Slayer fans have been waiting for. It’s not "Reign in Blood" but it comes closer to it than anything else they’ve ever done ("Payback" would fit quite nicely on it), this is the Slayer I’ve grown to love and I hope they keep this up.

Bottom Line: Face-ripping and mind-blowing violent! I’m impressed!

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Originality: 6
Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 8
Overall: 8

Rating: 7.6 out of 10

Review by Michael on March 17, 2024.

I was pretty much flashed when I had the honor to attend Zwielicht's ('Twilight' in English) release-party for their second album. The guys offered some really harsh and brutal black metal and so there was no doubt I'll be checking out the album too and also thankfully this isn't a German metal soap opera version of this terrifying vampire saga.

The Aphotic Embrace takes the listener in with a very gloomy and interesting cover which reminds me a little bit of Benediction's “Dark Is The Season” with the birds flying into the sky. This is a very aesthetic cover artwork but of course what is inside is a little bit more important. After a two-minute intro you get your skull crushed instantly with hateful, shrieking vocals and some thunderous, pummeling drums. The double-bass really kicks ass and blows you away right from the beginning. Tremolo-picking and some repetitive riffing adds some slight depressive mood and a feeling between hate and desperation. 'Stench Of Rotten Deities' is a very straight statement towards all experimental black metal bands and stretches out a very huge rotten middle finger towards them. This is old school black metal and a great homage to some legendary bands as Emperor, Dark Funeral and so on. Although the guys have a very brutal approach in their song writing, they don't miss to offer some melodies in their music. Apart from that there is some space for atmospheric intermezzos like the 3 minute-piece 'Transcendental Salvation' that helps to calm down the hateful mind a little bit and to recharge the anger for the next black metal crushers.

Musically the songs don't differ in their style too much, they all have this icy tremolo-picking in common and also these extreme hateful vocals. Maybe the title track 'The Aphotic Embrace' falls out of the scheme a little bit because the riffing is more into death metal with the low-tuned guitars than the other ones. But still the vocals make clear that this is some dark and evil forces doing their sinister work here. With 'Babalon' the guys from the Ruhr Area also have a song with German lyrics which are pretty much philosophical and deal with some kind of equilibrium between all. But if I didn't get the booklet, I'd never would have gotten that the lyrics are in German. I guess they did put the words pretty well into some desperate music here.

In my humble opinion Ván Records did a very good job with signing the band and if you like some real harsh and uncompromising black metal, this might be the right thing for you. Apart from the undoubted quality of the songs the production is also very good. It is powerful and hammering; sometimes maybe a little bit overdriven but I guess it depends where you hear it. On my stereo it works well, my earphones, too but with some lower-quality speakers it might sound a little bit rough. The Aphotic Embrace is a very good debut and I am curious to see what the future will bring for the guys. And coming back to “Twilight”, if the books would kick ass that much as the album, they would be recommendable, too. There is only the German version Zwielicht that will find a way into my heart though.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 ass kicking vampires

Review by Alex on December 3, 2018.

This effort by Terranaut and Chaosophy whom contrast each other greatly in terms of playing styles and genres is an interesting release when analyzing both the production quality and the musical standards of both these projects. Terranaut plays a form of early 2nd wave black metal mixed with raw black metal, hence the loudly mixed guitars and the almost inaudible bass guitar. Chaosophy however, play a form of black metal that can be aligned with the more melodic side of the genre, also the production is noticeably cleaner than that of Terranaut on the split recording. Terranaut’s sound creates the impression that the band members intended to put forth something that appeared to mimic the time in which 1st wave black metal was transitioning into the era of second wave black metal. This incorporated the use of keyboards and possessed either a fairly symphonic or melodic sound. It's a clash of old and modern eras of black metal, both performances pick at the selected time frames in a decent representation of both. 

Terranaut’s side of the split is filled with massive landscapes that blends melancholy along with the pagan influenced style of black metal. “Foretold Demise” is the best example of the merging of theses two styles. The soaring guitar tremolo shares the spotlight with that folky style often heard on pagan black metal records. “Remnants” focuses more on creating a fierce, warlike atmosphere; the thrashing segment on this track comes across as a very convincing nod to first wave black metal. Though this effect was not used as long as I would have liked it to be, for its short lived presence it did do enough to give the music enough depth. Opening with an instrumental I can accept, but closing with one is often rejected by my musical preference in composition choices. However, “Futile Legacy” was excellently composed and gave Terranaut’s portion of the split a greater feeling of completion and even helped in the ushering in of the Chaosophy side. I see this a very thoughtful move as it shows that Terranaut is committed to the long term goal of success. 

Chaosophy’s side of the split features 3 songs that are roughly 8 minutes a piece. “Whores of The Christ God” begins with a short instrumental that bursts into a melodic groovy fury of sickening snarls that conveys the feeling of hatred excellently. The song title is blasphemous enough but the vocals really up the tempo on the disdain. This track also has the addition of synth that is exquisite whenever used; in those moments I felt as though I was listening to Lost Horizon’s A Flame To The Ground Beneath. “Serpents of Thoughtless Light” kept the keyboard synth in the slower sections of the song but lowered the volume of its mix to blend with the guitar landscapes being painted. He track displayed the transition of speed and graceful melody back and forth. It’s a piece of music that deserves much praise for elegantly mixing styles in a harmonious fashion. It doesn’t sound like parts were tossed in to just fulfill the purpose of variation, instead it displays to the listener how each note played on any musical piece should be connected in order to present an authentic representation of the feelings and themes being expressed through the medium. 

Both bands provided acceptable performances on the split, with each doing a fantastic job of keeping the atmospheric influence high.

Rating: 8.2 out of 10