Kev Rowland Eibon La Furies was created as a one-man project by Paul D Sims (Lord Eibon Blackwood) in 2006 to combine industrialised black metal with dark ambient music inspired by Victoriana occult spirituality. After a few demo EP’s with session musicians, the band became a trio in 2008 with the addition of Jamie Batt (Battalion) on drums and Matt Cook (The Furious Host) on bass, and it was this line-up that released ‘The Blood of the Realm’ in 2010. Since then they have been developing their sound and style, and realised that they needed to increase their personnel so have brought in Neil Purdy on lead guitar. Paul has said “The Immoral Compass was conceived due to circumstance. Negative turned positive by taking control. When the wave hits, you have to ride it, ride ahead of it or be drowned by the cascading crush. Be your own compass, worship no one, bow to none – believe in your own convictions”.

Although this album does obviously belong within the Black Metal arena, this is much more of a fusion beast as it brings in influences and styles from many dark areas. While some songs are classic BM, others contain BM elements but are much more hard rock, while others are more symphonic with dark choruses and a feeling of being deep inside the Hammer House of Horror. But, this is not comic-book horror, but rather something that is far deeper and menacing. And very, very real. In some ways this is quite a hard album to listen to as musically it is pushing a great many buttons. The vocals range from melodic gravel to acerbic and visceral while the choirs and are placed against seven string guitar riffs. There are times when the menacing vocals are placed against acoustic classical guitar yet somehow this just makes the music even more interesting and somewhat darker.

Having played this a great deal I know that I like it, but am still not really sure how to describe it! This is something that deserves to be heard, at the very least. www.eibonlafuries.co.uk