A new Ep of angular, frenzied black metal from this Canadian crew. It's the first record I've picked up from the band; my interest was piqued when I saw that several of the members of Gloria Diaboli also play in Thy Rites Of Degrongolade, one of my all-time favorite Canadian black/death metal bands, as well as some having done time in the equally punishing Weapon. With Gloria Diaboli, the band delivers a dense, complex black metal sound that revolves around intricate guitar riffs blazing at top speed, punishing high-speed drumming that weaves vicious machine-gun rattle of blast beats and rolling patterns together to create a seething element of chaos that runs through all five of the tracks on this record; there's some of that wonky, off-kilter technicality that you get with Rites Of Thy Degringolade, but Libation definitely has its own sound. The songs on this 10" all actually appeared previously on the band's 2008 Gate To Sheol Cd on Total Holocaust in a different form; these are the original rehearsal recordings that the band made in preparation for that release, which in hindsight they apparently felt were the definitive versions of the material. It's certainly violent and twisted enough in this rawer form, strengthened by the hoarse, ghastly vocals of Antediluvian's Haasiophis, whose only recorded appearance with Gloria Diaboli was with these tracks. Although described by the band and label as "orthodox black metal", this stuff definitely is not another exercise in by-the-numbers black metal. The songs are rife with evil, serpentine grooves, shifting spiraling riffs and weird rhythmic breakdowns (and some of the best black metal drumming in recent memory), and they have an offbeat style of song arrangement and rhythmic interplay that comes off as being slightly prog-informed (a la older Deathspell Omega) without getting too far out in that direction. It's all bound together by a philosophical approach to Satanism filled with evocative infernal symbolism, with fantastic artwork to match. A really impressive vinyl document from this band, released on black vinyl in a limited edition of four hundred copies, packaged with an 11" by 17" poster and printed insert.