Band:	Nethervoid
Album:	Sirens Of The Blistering Light
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	October 2008

01. Sirens Of The Blistering Light
02. Wyrm Of World's End
03. The Nethers Nativity
04. Southern Convex
05. Of This Sacred Circle
06. Vines In A Virgins Body
07. Towering Pillars Of Six
08. 1,000 Hands Of The Assiduous Specter

Nethervoid, offspring of Iowa's raw soil, is a recent addition to the Black metal scene. Their first demo "Templar Of The Judas Goat" never reached my ears but the title alone is enough to guess the right genre for this band. Now with their second assault, the full-length dubbed "Sirens Of The Blistering Light", they demanded my attention and rightly so.

Nethervoid execute their Black metal with some catchier elements, like Darkthrone or old Carpathian Forest did. Actually, like a lot of bands has done before them, and without doubt will do after them. Herein lies my biggest issue with this band (and a lot of other today's Black metal bands for that matter), originality is not something to be found here. But what the hell, I'm still a big fan of Black metal in most of its shapes and forms so I'm still enjoying a good old second wave-inspired record like this for a couple of spins.

Throughout the album they display various styles of Black metal riffing, something that really tickled my fancy. Most of the riffing is of the to-the-point and compact Darkthrone style (and ditto vocals), while there is also the occasional drawn out riff that's a little more atmosphere inducing (these are also the moments that they keyboard sets in). At the end of "Towering Pillars Of Six" there's even a riff that's very reminiscent of modern Satyricon. If you haven't noticed yet, this album is a hybrid of old and modern "true" Black metal with the occasional atmospheric moment or song. On these moments the vocals will also adapt and become more painful and tormented, as opposed to the raw 'Nocturno Culto rasp'. Regarding the bass and drums I can be short: they do their job.

As for passing a final judgment on this album, it's not that hard. What we have here is some good Black metal that sticks very close to the roots. You'll either like it or you'll dislike it. In both cases, you know what to do.