This Greek quartet - who have been flying the black metal flag in that part of the world, in one form or another, for the past 15 years - have a reputation for being so introvertedly mystical that they virtually disappear up their own backsides in their search for dark enlightenment. The fact that the project's monicker comes from the name of the mystical river over which Hades used to transport the souls of the dead to the underworld sort of puts their mythological philosophy into perspective - as does the fact that this, their third, album's name is also the Hindu for the 'left hand path'. They - if you can refer to what is basically a one-man project in the plural - also claim to be one of the few bands in the genre who pride themselves on wearing their Seventies influences very much on their sleeves.

Certainly, the 'Opening The Eye Of The Storm' intro wouldn't sound out of place on the soundtrack to a Dennis Wheatley or Vincent Price movie, with all its creepy, scene-setting atmospherics. First track proper, 'Blood Current Illumination' is a seven-and-a-half minute epic which opens with a swirling guitar line and is dominated by spoken, almost poetic vocals, occasionally interspersed with traditional BM growls and screams, underpinned by a brutal wall of death beats, all of which reflect the darkness of the band's approach and their subject matter.

'Abraxas' (most definitely not to be confused with the Carlos Santana classic of 40 years ago) opens with a two-note distorted guitar line over priestlike chanting before melding into a more traditional BM track - and then ending with almost two minutes of Hammer Horror-ish instrumentalisation. The more recognizable BM sound is maintained on the six-minute title track, while 'Ohm Krim Khi' is a very different beast - full of toms, acoustic guitars (and balalaikas), mystical chanting, spirits wailing: the sort of music the ancients made sacrifices to, and not one to be listened to with the lights off - well, at least make sure there's plenty of candles lit!

'Beyond The Mazeways To Ophidian Gnosis' (these guys obviously listen to a lot of Nile) quickly drags us back into the corporeal, with a barrage of blastbeats, banshee-scary guitars and enough guttural growling to fill several average BM albums, a path well-trodden once more with closer 'Draconian Wombs', which actually has quite a rock'n'roll feel to it - albeit played at breakneck speed - and sees the return of the swirling guitar riffs first featured on 'Blood Current...', but suffers from the fact that it could have been cut in half after its first five minutes, as the overlong instrumental outro becomes tedious in the needlessly extreme.

This is a long and intensely dark album, but one with enough layers, twists and surprises to keep the listener interested (if, indeed, some of the tracks are a wee bit over-long).

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