Abhor / Abysmal Grief - Legione Occulta / Ministerium Diaboli LP

Drawing together two of Italy's longest-running cults, this split MLP seethes with an otherworldly atmosphere and, fittingly for both bands' country of origin, a concerted sense of excommunication and blasphemy. ABHOR occupy Side A with two exclusive tracks. As one of Italy's oldest black metal bands, their expression here emits an ancient magick, no doubt enhanced by their trademark mystical organ. But ABHOR's more lumbering, doomish tracks find a perfect counterpart in ABYSMAL GRIEF, arguably Italy's foremost purveyors of traditional doom. On Side B, fittingly do ABYSMAL GRIEF deliver a 13-minute epic of olde-worlde horror that patiently sets its malodorous mood and draws the listener deeper in this phantasmagoric experience.