��This is the first missive I've received from the Sri Lankan black metal scene, which appears to be a bit more active than you might expect. I dug around on metal-archives.com and found that there are actually a number of black metal bands that have sprung up in this remote corner of the world; like most isolated underground music communities, the Sri Lankan black metal scene appears to incestuous and close-knit, with many bands sharing members, but from what I've heard so far, there's a bit of variety going on within this particular little scene. This split LP is a prime example, fueled by death worship and drug abuse and featuring Funeral In Heaven's strange mixture of Indian classical music and murky mournful black metal and Plecto Aliquem Capite psychotic experimental black/death metal.

�� The three songs from Funeral In Heaven are richly textured, opening with the raga drones and Indian classical sounds of "Transmigrations Into Eternal Submission (Of Altered Consciousness)", the deep sitar-like drones of the Raga Asavari undulating beneath the hypnotic sounds of violin and hand drums as ominous distorted power chords slowly begin to crash in. The heavy, metallic guitar chords that reverberate throughout this sprawling track are repetitive and droning, and as they wash over the band's swirling traditional sounds, it evokes some of the same mysterious atmosphere as the raga-influenced psychdoom of Queen Elephantine, but with the violin weaving the mesmeric melodies over the band's thick fog of droning synths and guitar. And then the epic thirteen minute "Bandhana (Gatahaththey Kathaa Wasthuwa)" drifts in, icy low-fi black metal in the classic Scandinavian tradition, the tinny, mournful arpeggios circling around the slow, doom-laden funeral procession drums and strange choral voices. And the last song is a cover of "Buddhang Saranang" by another Sri Lankan band called Thapas, a rollicking hard rock jam that combines burly 70's rock riffage and wailing guitar solos with ghastly vocals and powerful singing and a backdrop of frenetic tribal percussion, finishing their contribution with strange and intoxicating blackened psychedelia.

�� Plecto Aliquem Capite also start their side off with a languid, violin-drenched Indian raga, the twilight buzz of the instruments sweeping across the dank, catacomb-like ambience that the band begins to weave, leading into a strange mixture of random percussion and tape loops of a voices discussing the art of meditation. The mangled black metal assault that follows is pretty wrecked, pounding drums and fucked-up discordant guitars slung around woozy, off-kilter riffing and the singer's insane, abject howl. This is some seriously messed-up, mind-melting stuff, almost tripping over into Abruptum territory at times, but loaded with vicious blastbeats and sudden tempo changes that are violent and jarring. The vocals are some of the craziest I've heard on a black metal album lately, a blown-out, totally hysterical mess of mewling, anguished howls and sickening pig-squeal screams. The rest of the side continues it's assault of deformed weirdness, slipping into stretches of crazed Sabbathian doom-crawl and putrid death metal chug, strange clusters of harp-like notes that wash over more of that mangled detuned riffage. Pretty killer.

�� Comes in gatefold packaging, each copy hand-numbered in an edition of three hundred fifty.