Vorkreist

That album title isn't exactly mom-friendly, so keep this one tucked away in the darkest recesses of your evil black metal basement. France's Vorkreist are back with album number four of pure evil-gnome malevolence. The evil-gnome part of that comes from the vocals, which are pure, well, evil gnome. The rest of the evil comes from the ultra-Satanic approach, the onslaught of movie samples, tremolo picking and relentless blasting. But the production is huge and full, nearing industrial, at times, with the added samples and weirdo, spooky background vocals (see "Memento Mori," which also has some good sludge riffing). "Ad Nauseam" features some nice groove and slower, doom-y parts, while "Dominus Illuminato Mea" has amazing guitar work. Elsewhere, there are song titles that aren't in Latin (just kidding) and while those "spooky garden gnome" vocals get a bit tiring and tend to take away from the intensity, this is an extremely solid and intense black metal disc.