Ophthalamia
Dominion

All and It, members of the reckless and hallucinating band Abruptum, devoted to a "invocational black metal" that is sulfurous and unlistenable, as well as self-torture and the cultivation of madness and suicide, let loose their less dark side - so to speak - in the band Ophthalamia.

After some decent work, like "Via Dolorosa" or "A Journey in Darkness," in 1998 this little masterpiece is born, complete with a fresh and appealing sound, less acidic, extreme, or cruel than that of most "true black" bands: the Swedish imprint of the band is clearly recognizable, and at several points, from the consistently solid riffing, never too fast, precise, and rock-solid, perfectly suited to support the extremely consistent structures evoked by All's voice and the secondary instruments, with tempos excellently maintained by the drums, which include few blast-beats or double bass drum outbursts - see once again the Swedes Dissection or the fellow countrymen Katatonia in their early period.

The second and third tracks ("Time For War" and "Final Hour of Joy") are an excellent example of such systematic approaches to a substantial, refined, yet melodic black metal; without doing too detailed a track by track, it's enough to add how noteworthy the frequent melodic insertions in the tracks are, evocative enough without distorting the character of the pieces, among which the good "Great Are the Deeds of Death" and the excellent "Black Rainbow Rising (Castle of No Repair III)" are not exempt, nor are the backing vocal incursions of "Shadow"-It.

More static, on the other hand, are tracks like "Eclipse of Life (The Eternal Walk IV)" and "Dominion", the latter excepted for a couple of almost heavy spurs at the end.

Standing out, in a separate context, is the opener "Elishia's Mistresses Gather", a soft and atmospheric score in which two delicate chords serve as a sound-board for the recited whisper of All, almost epic, and the outro "Legacy of the True (Death Embrace Me III)", a small piano symphony with a new recitation, that glides along the three and a half minutes like a requiem, like a gentle and cold wind of abandonment, of farewell.