Pa Vesh En - Pyrefication Digi CD

In little more than two years, this Belarusian enigma has built a sizable (and starkly terrifying) catalog, culminating in last year's critically acclaimed Church of Bones debut album and, earlier this year, the Cryptic Rites of Necromancy EP, all under the aegis of IRON BONEHEAD. Thus far, PA VESH EN has exhibited a stark 'n' unsettling style of black metal: from stifled-violence miserablism to seemingly formless drift, from bent-askew melodicism to echo-chamber murk, always with a tortured soul guiding everything, he's almost effortlessly created a soundworld beyond compare - and has done so with the restlessness of a lost specter.

Restless as ever, PA VESH EN prodigiously keeps apace with his tortured vision of black metal with a brand-new second album, Pyrefication. Ever aptly titled, Pyrefication is total spiritual meltdown: this is the veritable sound of the soul collapsing inward and dying a most exquisite death. To that, PA VESH EN draws inspiration from within, and here locates a wobbly, ever-so-delicate balance between Cryptic Rites of Necromancy's ultraviolent hysteria and the murkier mystery of his earliest work, all done with spellbinding alchemy that makes for a miasmic 40-minute labyrinth. If anything, PA VESH EN seems unsettlingly comfortable taking his muse wherever he wishes on Pyrefication, malforming and maiming any atmosphere he wishes whilst maintaining that beckoning-abyssward style of melodicism he's made his own since his auspicious start.

Once again, PA VESH EN hands you the matches for self-immolation - will you provide the kindling for Pyrefication?

Iron Bonehead.