Filthy, murderous black metal from the hellish pits of California! Less abstract and warped than his left coast peers in Xasthur, Ludicra, Draugur, Leviathan and Weakling, Crebain's mastermind Ancalgon The Black is nonetheless a master of his dark art. That art, of course, being that of face ripping thrash riffage. That's right, Crebain's sound is not about noise, or damaged recording techniques, or strange prog-influenced song structures...it's about raging riffs of the highest caliber, as much influenced by old school Teutonic thrash as it is by the old school black metal of Darkthrone, Dissection, and Burzum, which makes this exceedingly catchy shit. This might be one of the few one man black metal bands that can actually rage, and this new reissue of Crebain's debut album is a prime dose of ultra catchy, thrashing buzzsaw attack. No doubt a reference to the huge evil crows that served Sauron in Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings that Crebain takes i

t's name from, Night Of Stormcrow was first released as a run of 66 copies that were hand numbered in blood, but is now available as a proper CD release from Tumult, who had also released Crebain's excellent split album with Leviathan. The guitar tone on these seven songs is total teeth, a biting midrange tone that's perfect for Crebain's hellish riffing. The ominous sound of crow caws and thunder give way to roiling icy buzz, shrieking hateful vocals are bathed in distortion, nursery rhyme samples from Argento movies are used to chilling effect, and haunting female choirs appear behind veils of swarming guitars. The drum machine programming is pretty amazing, sounding for the most part human and organic and less machinelike, though the blastbeats and slower waltzing rhythms are assembled for maximum tranciness. In addition to the original album, there's also three bonus tracks from the boombox-recorded demo of Ancalgon The Black's previous band Gauderon Dherg.