Review by Felix on September 10, 2019.

Opinions vary widely when it comes to Setherial. Is this one of these groups that actually nobody needs, because many other formations already cover the musical spectrum they offer? Or does the band deliver high quality black metal? The latter is true. Perhaps it's just a strange twist of fate that many maniacs support Dark Funeral or Marduk without taking care of Setherial. The title track of their 7" vinyl release from 2011 shows that their compositional skills reach the high standard of the Swedish flagships. Blast beats, Legion-like screaming and horribly sharp guitar leads give birth to another prime example of Scandinavian black metal. Short calm sequences are helpful in order to increase the dynamic and the high number of tempo variations ensures the listener 's full concentration. The Belgian dudes from Enthroned would call Setherial's approach "blacker than black" and probably that's nothing but the truth. It's the sound that make cloisters crumble. Or at least the sound that makes nuns lose their coif.

Either the song of the B side is completely Setherialized or the cover track always sounded like a number of the Swedes themselves. I would not exactly pay tribute to a band with the shitty name Zyklon-B, even if really great musicians have been active under this banner. But the good news is that this detail does not lower the quality of the song. It's another great storm of devastation and at the end it features a very good atmospheric melody, a kind of harbinger of Emperor's masterpieces. The sound of the songs is also great. It's the typical black metal mix, nasty, aggressive, cold and misanthropic. Bands like Tsjuder also have this sound and I cannot say that I can get enough of it as long as the musical content meets my expectations. That's the case here and therefore I wish that Setherial will return with a new full-length one day. Opinions vary widely? I cannot believe it.

Rating: 9 out of 10