Band:	Mion's Hill
Album:	Black Death
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	September 2013

01. Gates Of Horror
02. Plague Doctor
03. Witches Vomit
04. Black Death
05. Evocation/Pestilent Sabbat
06. Necrotizing Fasciitis
07. Periorbital Mould
08. Black Pit

Mion's Hill hails from the same place in Norway as Darkthrone and they're active in the Fenriz-coined underground resistance (the aggrandizing name for making heartfelt, old-style metal). Two dudes of the three-piece here are also in the band Condor, another Norwegian old-style band that kicks ass.

Yeah, the bands waging war on "false" metal can come across as pretentious, but when it comes down to it, bands like those mentioned above are banging out some of the most pretension-free tunes around. Darkthrone, say, make belligerent metal about metal because they're in a time-tested position to do so; the guys of Mion's Hill, on the other hand, are young as hell and they're probably humble enough to make their contributions to the effort solely on the music side of things. Won't be getting any interrogations about whether or not your metal knows what metal really means here, just a good sonic mauling.

Basically these guys play blackened doom; there are slow, evil poundings delivered, followed by swift night trains of early-Burzumish darkness. Screeching, agonized vox are vomited out to accent the rapidly alternating slow parts and faster ones. Makes for an intoxicating, vile double shot.

Their demo from 2012 was great, if a tad too cassette-y. Luckily most production qualms have been addressed on this. There's actually a low end now and the guitars don't sound like they're being cramped in by Douglas' dad's Volvo anymore. As much as I enjoyed the rawness of their last release, this marks a sound improvement through and through. It's still rawer than an Adderall fap, but thoughtfully put together to sound that way. It sounds like they're coming from a small club now, not a one-car garage.

There are songs that didn't come together as well as they do on the handful of stand-out tracks (two of which are re-recordings from the demo), but that's also part of what makes this such a fun listen. We get to hear this young group with this addicting sound and addicting style work out their kinks. And kinks are metal as fuck.