adg211288 Australian atmospheric black metal duo Mesarthim have quickly become a productive group since the release of their debut full-length album Isolate (2015), with no less than six new releases put out during 2016; their second studio album .- -... ... . -. -.-. . (Absence), a single (added as a bonus track to physical releases of Isolate) and four EP's. 2017 has already seen two of those EP's put together for a physical release compilation, The Great Filter/Type III, and now their first new material of the year, Presence. It is a three track EP containing about twenty minutes of music.

Much like the Pillars (2016) EP was said to be a concluding release to what the band started on Isolate, Presence is said to do the same for Absence. The key difference is that Pillars really did feel like more of the same as Isolate but Presence feels quite different to Absence, also being more fresh in respect to the group's entire discography. There are similar elements of course and if anything it's closer to Isolate and Pillars than any of the releases put out since, but it also feels like a band taking their sound a step further. The cosmic vibes of their atmospheric black metal sound are still here, but it's even more psychedelic and trance-like than ever before, with the synths being used more dominantly than ever, including extended full-on synth sections where the metal elements get removed entirely, as in Eschaton Part I, which also adds some atmospheric female vocals to the music during the metal parts. The band's usual growling vocals barely get a look in. More familiar ground is Eschaton Part II and the title track, where the metal gets removed only in briefer dosages.

Presence is easily the most genre boundary pushing release from Mesarthim yet. It might be fair to say that for some listeners this EP may be the point where the duo finally went too far, but for my part I'm as enchanted as ever by their majestic sounds mixed with a harsh yet atmospheric black metal backdrop, yet equally enthralled in the moments where they remove the latter. In fact, this may even be my favourite EP from Mesarthim to date. A superb twenty minutes cosmic trip.