���� Some great ghoulish black metal on this new one from Abhor, who embellish their satanic dungeon visions with understated gothic organ accompaniment. Their latest Ritualia Stramonium is haunted by the presence of that medieval-sounding pipe organ, which was what initially drew me to their moldering occult metal, lurking beneath the band's furious witchblast and adding a fantastically creepy and eldritch vibe.

���� These cloaked Italian black metallers have been at it for years, with Ritualia being their sixth album since forming in the late 90s, and the ominous metal they peddle on this disc is definitely of an old-school vintage, with lots of ferocious thrashing riffs and bursts of crushing, doom-laden Frostian heaviness. When that pipe organ kicks in with it's grandiose sound, though, it lends a cool proggy touch to this stuff, an element of gothic grandeur layered over the cackling, maniacal vocals and furious minor-key thrash. The singer's vocals are somewhat odd, as well, a schizoid torrent of gargling gibbering hatred and weird slurred chanting which add to the generally deranged feel of the album. Musically, it's fundamentally straightforward old-school black metal, though these guys do work in some interesting atonal guitarwork, the odd off-kilter bass riff, and murky, chaotic samples into the mix along with a couple of moments of nocturnal folkiness. And that organ sounds great, loud and brash in the mix as the baroque black-mass keys loom over Abhor's violent blackened thrash; there's a couple of moments on Ritualia (like the terrifically weird "I...the Witch") where that organ even sort of evokes some of the more ghoulish Italian creep-prog deliria of classic Goblin, Antonius Rex and Jacula. There's an aged, cobwebbed feel to this stuff, a macabre atmosphere that aligns them more with the likes of Mortuary Drape than with most contemporary Italian black metal, the sort of stuff that evokes images from Bava's Black Sunday and Ferroni's Mill of the Stone Women.