Band:	Glorior Belli
Album:	The Great Southern Darkness
Style:	Black metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	September 2011

01. Dark Gnosis
02. Secret Ride To Rebellion
03. They Call Me Black Devil
04. Negative Incarnate
05. Bring Down The Cosmic Scheme
06. The Great Southern Darkness
07. The Foolhardy Venturer
08. Per Nox Regna
09. The Science Of Shifting
10. Chaos Manifested
11. Horns In My Pathway

I always thought there was hope, but something was preventing me from believing even more in the arch cause of my nostalgic thoughts. Ô Laudate Dominvs and Manifesting The Raging Beast are two personal favorites from the specific orthodox field of black metal and I'd like to see the band investing even more in the aforementioned scene. Meet Us at the Southern Sign had a different opinion, a more... southern one! Well, yes, this word, southern, abolished all hope I held for the band going back to their sound roots and The Great Southern Darkness is by all means the natural continuation of the aforementioned album.

Southern rock n' blues along with a general rock-oriented tone embed their dynamics with a black metal motive that's either distinctive or falls back for a while so as to let the bluesy aura unveil its warmer vibe. Of course it's not that sunny, don't be misguided, there's an ever-lurking shade of dissonance floating all over the place through the overall disharmony the guitar chords and melodies bring to the surface. The guitars hold a certain groove as well coming straight from the American South and something that's always positive has to be the fact that Glorior Belli haven't forgotten how it feels like to overburden the atmosphere with an outburst of raging guitars. If you're not familiar with their previous effort - Meet Us at the Southern Sign - then you must know that the secret to enjoying this album lies upon the guitars that are the main inspirational core both in terms of sound concept and interpretation. It's the bet with yourself you have to win so as to enjoy The Great Southern Darkness and the few but to the point solos will reward you.

J.'s rasping voice is still here, it couldn't be absent anyway, and I have to admit it blends really well with the soundscapes the guitars create. It's not all about rasping though, you'll witness some more shouting and ecstatic vocals, even some clean singing that lends even more variety to the ambiance. The bass lines have a presence of their own, they're always here with their pulsating groove alongside the creative drumming that not only follows in any tempo but also contributes to the moderated rhythmic chaos, yes, chaos with (b)orders that Glorior Belli have forged all by themselves.

One of the trumps the band possesses has to be the production; organic sound at its finest and a crystalline approach to every single instrument and at the same time without fogging their united persistence. Glorior Belli as a band wants to depict a more sophisticated air through their lyrics concerning the occult and after listening to the album many times I finally found out what the title-track reminded me of. It holds exactly the same essence that Ulver's Themes From William Blake's The Marriage Of Heaven & Hell evokes at times, a tranquilized sense of glorification, something like a post-modern anti-prayer or something. And I'm not referring to the song structure in particular, it's more of a likeminded vibe in terms of the way you perceive the meeting point of both auras when they conflict in your mind and the more they battle the more they come together.

Imagine it like a stormy summer day and/or a rainy beach party in the American South, no hope for sunshine but still you enjoy it even more. If you can keep up with the southern references in Glorior Belli's black metal portrait or you can bear black metal in your southern preferences, then The Great Southern Darkness is everything you should go after. If you enjoyed their previous effort its successor will most likely appeal to you as its natural progress. If you didn't and you expect something just like the good old days gone by, give it a shot, who knows, maybe this time the Sons Of Southern Darkness will get you drunk enough so as to invest deeper into what the band tried to achieve with the previous album. All in all, Glorior Belli managed to release a pretty solid effort for what it is, the way you'll digest it is always personal.