V:XII

***The blood-freezing second full-length album from Swedish black/death industrial beast V:XII (pronounced and read "Five Twelve") adds a new urgency and dimension to the infamous underworld of Scandinavian evil martial dark ambient/industrial made famous by the legendary legacy of Cold Meat Industry and affiliated acts like Brighter Death Now, Mz.412, etc., and later, by its contemporary bastions like Nordvarg and Trepaneringsritualen. The crushing new opus titled Lu-Cipher-Sabbatean is a grueling listening experience that for thirty six minutes imposes complete submission upon the listener, drawing them into a wretched realm of majestic, deconstructed electronics and into an infernal dimension of utter darkness and dread. Perverse, violent and hallucinatory in its every aspect, Lu-Cipher-Sabbatean conjures a lightless abyss of paranoia and ritualized insanity, as it unfolds an ominous concept on the conspiratorial mind devolved into to its worst and most deteriorated form, the religious one. A sense of grim solemnity transpires from the album's ritualistic and almost liturgic pace, evoking a seething feeling of absolute evil as widescreen moments of abysmal dark ambience are violently lacerated by violent, spasmodic proclamations and by an onslaught of cold, bludgeoning martial rhythms and disembodied incantations.