Many, many moons ago, Guinness used to run with the slogan: “good things come to those who wait” and do you know what? Sometimes they’re damned right. Back in 2016/17, Cult of Eibon (CoE) delivered two utterly superb EPs of black metal, it said the stage up perfectly for a debut studio album and then Covid. Thankfully, on the other side of this, the Greek band have finally delivered ‘Black Flame Dominion’.
Was it worth the anticipation? Yes, yes it was because what CoE have delivered here is an absolutely fantastic album of black metal which picks up where those EPs left off. This album is actually excellent and therefore it is easy to wax lyrical about it, ‘Black Flame Domination’ has a real old-school lo-fi vibe to it, but at the same time, this isn’t your obsessed with corpse paint, hot churches and black leather of second wave black metal, this is something more primal than that, tracks such as ‘The Dreamer and the Morning Star’, ‘Recollections from the Chthonian Empire’ and ‘The Mournful Chime of Charon’s Bell’ have all the appeal of the Hellenic black metal of Rotting Christ, Yoth Iria and Varathron as its mysticism weaves in and out mesmerising the listener.
‘Black Flame Dominion’ is an excellent piece of black metal, it sets the stage up perfectly and the bar really high for the remainder of their career.
