Band : Rexor

Album title : Ain

Label : Casket Music

Distributor : Copro Productions/ PHD

Release date : 28/04/2008

Release : CD

This Florence based Italian Black Metal outfit arose from the ashes of local Death/ Thrash bands Garant and Sudden Death in January 2004, forging a line-up to comprise singer Hate , guitarists Andras and Storm , bassist Lupus , and drummer Pesten.

September 2004 saw the release of their demo Infernum Dominium , which apparently gained enough positive reactions from the specialized press to instigate a still unknown entity to release a 5-track bootleg (live recording) mini-album entitled Infinite Vis Abscuritas during 2005. In early 2006 followed a deal with Italian Underground label Aural Offerings , but apparently the deal fell through. Recorded in June and July of last year, the band now sees its debut full-length released by none other than English label Copro (through their Casket Music subsidiary).

The album opens with the relatively calm sounds of outside wind, but after some 30 seconds the icy calmness is exchanged for the explosive and icy Nordic Black Metal torrent that is Rexor . Although the 9 songs only add up to just under 37 minutes, the mute space between tracks is kept to an absolute minimum, making for a feeling that the songs follow each other almost seemlessly. Not always, because on two other occasions (for "Evangelium Diaboli" and "Ad Majorem Luciferum Omnipotemtom Gloriam" ) the band opens a song with a calmer intro (the last seconds of the album also being almost mute). Hate has the kind of shrieking voice which makes you stand in awe and wonderment about the headaches the guy must be inducing to his own self...but it's all for The Art, isn't it? On top, the guitars blow away at mostly high speed pace (remember, there's a couple of calmer moments too) with a rather sharp sound which is the more befitting to the genre. As is the use of corpse-paint, by the way!

Personally, I occasionally like my Black Metal this way (in fact, if a chance comes along in the second-hand store, I'll prefer to take on an act of THIS kind in favour of anything better known). Check 'em out at myspace.com/rexordominium (4 songs off the album posted) to see whether this might be to your liking as well. In any case, if you're into Nordic Black Metal you can't let this one lay...there ain't too many bands like this left, you know...and some new blood is always welcome!

83/100

Tony.