Watain 'Lawless Darkness' LP 2010, Season of Mist

Four years have passed since the release of Sworn to the Dark, and now Watain has crawled out of their Satanic crypts to further desecrate shit. This time the record is called Lawless Darkness, and how much does it rip. A million rips. As one of the biggest names in Swedish Black Metal, Watain still destroy shit. Their Bathory worship sound has grown stronger with Lawless Darkness, and they've strengthened their Black Magick sound many dark wizard levels higher. The guitars are sharper and more slaying, the blast beats crush shit with more intensity than before. The vocals sound like hymns, park of a theatre or a dark Mass or something like that. To make real the suggested ritual importance of listening to this record, of which Watain place lots of significance on as they are on some Black Magick shit, the record is huge and very strong and fills up the whole room as the production is so powerful and heavy as a mausoleum. The literature produced by the band to accompany their LPs is always very interesting and furthers their aesthetic of being more than a band and more than music, more like a cult, a religion with mystic magick and shit like that. So on that, Lawless Darkness is available on 2xLP, or...you can get the grimoire version, housed in a book of spells style leather case, the inside has a metal Watain medallion. And a flag. And some rings. And a black candle, wrapped in special Watain ritual paper, and ten Tarot cards, one for each of the songs on this record, all designed and mystified by the singer, E.Danielsson. Say what you will, I find the book set over the top propaganda shit to be cool. Who else does shit like that? The illusion created by Watain and other similar bands (Sunn o))) for example), who place lots of emphasis on everything concerning the band to be perceived as an experience, a trip, and place lots of detail on that, it is an illusion. But an illusion, that encourages listening to that shit to be a thought provoking journey, and that rules. Heavy Metal. And anyways all of the artwork is so wicked.