Vehemency After the rehearsal quality ”Arcana Dei” tape trilogy last year, Cosmic Church returned in the beginning of this year with their debut album ”Absoluutin Lävistämä”, and manages to provide some great, both melancholic and evil (a common mixture in Finnish black metal nowadays), atmosphere within their occult black metal - just like before, now with a more professional sound.

”Absoluutin Lävistämä” doesn’t rush with tempos. From the introduction track ”Kultaisen Avaimen Portti” to the next couple of tracks, the band plays mid-paced, sometimes almost slow. Only after the interlude ”Lävistettynä Maailman Pilareihin” we hear the first blast beats. This all makes ”Absoluutin Lävistämä” sound leisurely in a way: the melodies aren’t hurried at all and there’s lots of repetition to be found in these songs that vary from 7 to 11 minutes. The drumming is enough varied so that the beats slightly alter every now and then even if the guitar riffs don’t - ensuring that the songs don’t sound boring.

One might surprise to find only four real tracks from this album, but that is quite not the truth - the other tracks (intro, interlude, outro) are real black metal songs also, so do not expect any useless humming one-note ambient moments here. In fact, the outro song ”Nousu Kaaoksen Vesistä” provides some of the best and most innovative riffs on the album. Other best moments usually reside in the ending climaxes of the long songs such as the majestic tunes towards the end of ”Kaikkinäkevän Silmän Pyhättö”.

While the pattern in which ”Absoluutin Lävistämä” is played works like a charm, it offers a bit too infrequently any real unique moments such as on ”Nousu Kaaoksen Vesistä”. I don’t complain much because the album is still a real treat to my ears: it’s one of those albums (and bands) of which I’m sure to enjoy always. First and foremost, ”Absoluutin Lävistämä” is a great whole with good playing time, not to forget Luxixul’s symbolic and evocative lyrics - and how well the lyrics are then executed in cold, distant shrieks.