This disc has been getting alot of hype lately, and it's no wonder - Cobalt's first album for Profound Lore is an unbelieveably ferocious assault of inventive black metal with a couple of aces up the collective sleeve of members Erik Wunder and Phil McSorley. Cobalt's riffing immediately strikes me as pretty different from typical black metal tremelo shredding; while the guitars do whip up a vicious storm of buzzsaw chords, there are also some slippery discordant riffs and warped axework that almost sound more like something off of Gorgut's Obscura or that new Negativa disc. Then there are the rolling tribal drums and monolithic drones of "Ulcerism" where it sounds like Neurosis just crashed the party, jangly post-rock bits, and a highly skilled ability to craft dark ambient dronescapes and lilting acoustic requiems that offset the metal. There are three different tracks titled "Ritual Use Of Fire", each one a seperate track of ominous folk/drone. But these are no mere interludes, each track runs 4-5 minutes in length, and just as essential to Eater Of Birds flow as the metal. "Androids, Automatons and Nihilists" is another softer peice, but that one is a weird, otherworldly track with guitars both acoustic and distorted accompanied by theremin tones.

But another thing that is certainly of interest with this new album is the presence of Jarboe from Swans on a couple of tracks, which is pretty impressive. Being a huge fan of both Swans and Jarboe's solo works, I'd love to see her engage with more bands and artists from the heavier end of the spectrum, and her contribution of vocal textures to Eater Of Birds adds a substantial layer of emotion to the music. Cobalt came out with a great album with this, progressive and often psychedelic and otherworldly-sounding - fans of the more mind-bending collectives in modern black metal (Deathspell Omega, Portal, Nachtmystium) are urged to check 'em out. The a 6-panel digipack packaging is beautiful too, complete with a 12-page full color booklet. Recommended.