Xasthur / Leviathan Split

Here we have an excellent split album from two top notch USBM artists, Xasthur and Leviathan, released by Battle Kommand Records, a label run by Azentrius of Nachtmystium. An LP version was released earlier in 2005, but on this CD version, we find three additional tracks from Xasthur, including an excellent cover of Katatonia's "Palace of Frost", and one additional track from Leviathan, a cover of Judas Iscariot's "Where the Winter Beats Incessant".

As a Xasthur fan, I was not disappointed by the quality of these tracks. They are very similar to previous output, having much of the same tortured screams, and suicidal-depressive sound as the latest full-length To Violate the Obvious. The Katatonia cover is a unique anomaly, as previous Xasthur covers were of cult black metal bands; I kind of like the more blackened sound of it!

The sweetest surprise of this disk was Leviathan. Honestly, while I found Leviathan's latest album The Tentacles of Horror quite bland and uninteresting, I was immediately taken by their tracks on this split. These tracks are slow, depressive, atmospheric-minimalist black metal in the vein of Wrest's solo project Lurker of Chalice, but better! "The Remotest Cipher" is one of Leviathan best tracks. I love the echo effects on Wrest's screams, seemingly giving the music a dream-like effect; of course, one realizes that this is no dream, but rather a tortured nightmare. The latter half of the track is amazing... featuring soaring guitars over a constant barrage of double bass beats. Leviathan does a great job on the Judas Iscariot cover, exactly what you would expect after hearing the first two tracks.

This is a must-have for fans of the emerging USBM scene; it's worth it for the Leviathan tracks alone!