The 2004 album from Equimanthorn is a supreme dose of nocturnal industrial creep from several members of the magic-obsessed Texan black metal band Absu, (Emperor Proscriptor Magikus and Equitant) as well as members of Melechesh and a handful of other dark ambient/black metal co-conspirators. The band describes this album as a collection of "experimental soundscapes", but it's that and so much more...Second Sephira Cella is occultic ambience and old-school post-industrial and proggy soundtrack music fused together into twelve black rituals, heavy and dark but definitely not black metal in the slightest. No, these creeping mystikal dirges draw from the soundtracks of John Carpenter/Alan Howarth, exotic Middle Eastern intrumentation and 80's post-industrial to create grim and intoxicating narratives that are, like Absu, heavily focused on ancient Sumerian mythology and ritual magic. Lyrics are recited in a deep, dramatic voice over aural explorations that move from dark Lustmord/Yen Pox style ambience to pulsating synth music, droning Moogs and ghostly whispers and swirling in the distance, heavy industrial rhythms, and frequent forays into Mesopotamian tribal music played on a full array of bouzouki, goblet drums, hand percussion, flutes, chimes, and something called a "six-fold bow"... but this is combined with soaring 70's synths, which turns their dark ritualistic jams into a kind of occult space-prog soundtrack, a mixture of Goblin's creepy Argento-era prog and Coil and Middle Eastern folk music that Equimanthorn exquisitely crafts into these haunting and atmospheric investigations into their strange world of ancient ritual and obscure mythologies. Highy recommended - fans of Karl Sanders's (Nile) solo albums would especially dig this, I think. I just discovered the last two albums that were released by the Dutch death metal label From Beyond and was hooked on the first listen, and tried to get both Second Sephira Cella and the 2007 follow-up Exalted Are The 7 Throne Bearers Of Ninnkigal in stock, which we did, but the eight or so copies of Second Sephira Cella that we did manage to get were the absolute last ones available, so these are apparently the last copies available!