✦✦✦✧ Oranssi Pazuzu continue their avant-garde electronicky black metal explorations, but in going farther than ever before with their cross-genre borrowings, they’ve managed to turn in a sound that is also their most listenable? I promise, even if you’ve heard these guys before, this album will keep you guessing.

✦✦✦✧ I did not expect this. Oranssi Pazuzu’s latest album is a blend of their previous black metal excellence, plus Nine Inch Nails? plus Steve Reich?! Also, why hadn’t I really considered how well black metal and industrial sensibilities would blend together before now? It’s potent and methodical and devastating. Run, don’t walk, to your headphones!

✦✦✦✧ Wow. This album defies categorization. You could, with equal precision and certitude, call it black metal, stoner metal, space psychadelia, prog metal, 70s prog rock, world music… I could keep going. It’s surefooted in its dominance, without being ostentatious about it. And it’s full of surprises. A fascinating must-listen, which reminds me of Ihsahn but with more ambition, if you can imagine such a thing.