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Two behemoths of the Finnish Black Metal underground have teamed up to create a great split album, which is no surprise when you take into consideration the bands in question are none other than Behexen and Satanic Warmaster. Although I'm a big fan of both bands in question, it's the Behexen side that comes off slightly stronger here for me.

Both bands adhere to the school of orthodox Black Metal's rulebook, whilst still managing to pull off two different sounding tracks. The main difference I found was that Behexen tend to work in melodies via little licks here and there that complement the main riffwork, whereas Satanic Warmaster actually have a more Transylvanian Hunger-like approach to songwriting, slipping the harmony into the actual chord work itself. Behexen's "Mouth of Leviathan" kicks the split off in grand fashion, brimming with melancholy and waves of guitar washing throughout. Their second track "Where the Devil Spoke" however, wipes the floor with its predecessor, being completely awesome in just about every way. It manages to encapsulate the very essence of Black Metal in just under five minutes of pure auditory bliss — definitely the best Black Metal track of 2008 for me. Satanic Warmaster's half of the album begins well with "Where Eternity Awaits", showing a harsher production straight away, with fizzing guitars eroding your hearing with classic Black Metal riffs, bile-soaked vocals and drumming on what sounds like a post apocalyptic drum set. However, just as you're becoming accustomed to the new sound, the album ends with an acoustic re-recording of 'The Burning Eyes of the Werewolf" from the band's debut Strength and Honour. Personally, I didn't see much point in this, seeing as the arrangement has hardly changed at all, and it's generally played like Werwolf decided to do a run-through of the original track on acoustic guitars in rehearsals for a laugh.

Anyhow, even with the slightly weird ending to the album, this is still mostly grade A underground blackness. Well worth looking into for those whose musical outlook spans out of the color spectrum into the very harshest of monochromes.