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Well here's a first, Spain's first Yakuza black metal band(!). Sure, there have been bands that've based their music around oriental ideologies and history before, but none that I've personally heard that used it to fit in with theatrical black metal quite in this way.

Y3K are actually pretty good at what they do, which is playing a highly symphonic style of black metal with a bit more speed and viciousness thrown in to give it balls. There's even times when the speed pushes toward Mardukian blast, without getting quite so brutal due to the spacious synthesizers which swathe the music throughout, actually adding further to its novelty value. The vocalist has a nice throaty hiss which fits the music perfectly, but there's also the occasional use of a female vocalist which fits in well with the occasional gothic overtones of a few of the tracks too, so they're obviously not afraid to show hints of a softer side in between the drum barrage and tremolo picked guitar work. However, whilst the band is certainly proficient at what it does, they fail to strike the killing blow that is required when it comes to getting their riffs to stick in your grey matter. For all the flair and dynamics, there's not much else to get your teeth into when you cut through the veneer and pomp. Sure there are some great tracks here (album closer 'First Shall be Five' and 'A Land Unknown for All' in particular stick in my mind), but there's also a fair sized chunk of forgettable filler here too.

All in all, if Sigh were to do a Dimmu Borgir covers album using Ihsahn on synthesizers, this is probably very similar to what it'd sound like.