adg211288 ...Just ten days after the release of the EP The Great Filter (2016) and Australia's enigmatic black metal duo Mesarthim are back already with yet another EP release. TYPE III (2016) is the band's sixth release this year and like it's predecessor sees Mesarthim delivering a single long composition, only a little shorter than the last one at 18:40 in length.

It may initially look as if TYPE III is another exercise in the same sort of thing that Mesarthim did on The Great Filter but this is actually quite a different track within the band's atmospheric black metal spectrum. It feels more structured compared to the chopping and changing ideas of The Great Filter and actually reminds me a bit more of the band's debut album Isolate (2015), especially with the way the synths are used. The guitars, like a bit of the previous EP, take a very direct role in this track though and don't just provide a raw lo-fi atmosphere, but actually bring a surprisingly classic metal feel to parts of the song. There's less different sounds than The Great Filter and you're more likely to hear ideas make a reappearance in this track but as but much as The Great Filter worked I can't help but like TYPE III a whole lot more. I'd go as far to say that it may even be Mesarthim's best track to date.

I certainly didn't expect another Mesarthim release so soon after The Great Filter so they may even surprise us with another release before the year is out the way they are going. But as is I've definitely found the band's EP releases to be more worthwhile this year than the full-length album and despite earlier words in my reviews about The Great Filter being the best Mesarthim 2016 release up until this point the band have quickly supplanted it. Is this it or will they do it again?