ARKONA - Age Of Capricorn (Gatefold Vinyl) (LP)

Arkona, one of the first and best Polish black metal bands, follow up 2016's Debemur Morti debut Lunaris with the frighteningly-focused Age Of Capricorn, a zip-wire blast of mesmerizing intensity. Their emphatic seventh album builds a new world from their distinctive sonic elements: nihilistic rage, strident power, masterfully integrated filmic orchestration and vicious slabs of whiteout riffing where emotive melodies are beaten into corruption. Recorded, mixed and mastered at Impressive Art Studio, Age Of Capricorn is blessed with a crisp production that foregrounds a jackhammer relentlessness of near-industrial proportions, leaving the listener gasping for air as they are bludgeoned into inverted cathedrals of sound.