Black Sun – Twilight Of The Gods

Opening with Code Black - a track easily sitting on the more upbeat and melodic (if you an call it that) side of Black Sun's destructive sonic spectrum - Twilight Of The Gods delivers 11 tracks flitting between shit-kicking head-bangers (Warhead, Black Angel) and ominous, slow-burning epics (Twilight Of The Gods, Transcending The Mire) with Russell McEwan and Keven Hare's ear-blistering screams taking mere seconds to drop you to your knees.

Still maintaining the doom-ridden brutality they've perfected over the years, the Glasgow trio are joined here by enigmatic fighting enthusiast and legendary Oxbow frontman Eugene Robinson, lending his impassioned, soulful howls to two tracks: Tabula Rasa is a sluggish cocktail of battle cries ("I'm gonna kill ya!") and brooding, low-end riffs, whilst Baby Don't Cry is even slower and more twisted but no less a fiendish pleasure. A difficult listen, in the best possible way. [Ryan Drever]