Vesania

Headed by Behemoth’s bassist Orion, Vesania are a black metal project that actually don’t stray far from the Polish death metal masters. Orion’s side-project, however, does inject a little more of the symphonic elements of black metal that have been prevalent on the recent Dimmu Borgir releases. The overall quality of the album is high, with the symphonic elements adding just the right nuances to make the sound all the more epic. In fact, Distractive Killusions tends to mix up the pacing and intensity throughout the experience and is a worthy replacement for the mediocrity that was Dimmu Borgir’s In Sorte Diaboli. The production — always an important factor with symphonic black metal — holds up quite well, although it obviously doesn’t have the budget and pristine resonance that the Dimmu Borgir record does. The album even holds true to the more recent practices of bands like Zyklon or Dodheimsgard by inserting industrial-sounding elements (see "Silence Makes Noise”). Distractive Killusions is a high quality black metal release and although Vesania are a bit guilty of sounding like a Behemoth rip-off band, the experience delivered on his latest full-length more than makes up for the similarities.