Band:	Esoctrilihum
Album:	The Telluric Ashes Of The Ö Vrth Immemorial Gods
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	May 2019

01. Kahlbas Mha
02. Kros Ö Vrth
03. Invisible Manifestation Of Delirium God
04. Stone Of Static Void
05. Thar-Voknargh
06. Listaël
07. Aborted Sun
08. Black Hole Entrance
09. Black Hole Exit
10. Inexorable Plague Of Time
11. Torment Of Death

France has had a reputation as a land of top shelf, quality black metal for a good period of time now. But it's been a while since a band as downright excellent as Esoctrilihum has come along.

I only discovered Esoctrilihum just recently, with the Jeff Whitehead cover for Inhuma drawing my eye, but boy, am I damn happy that I did. The one man effort of an individual known as "Asthâghul," Esoctrilihum has been noticeably prolific since its inception, conjuring four albums already since 2016, including this year's beast which arguably represents the project at its peak. Although The Telluric Ashes Of Really Long Title doesn't diverge too much from the trend established with Esoctrilihum's past three albums, this is more of an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" situation than anything, as the colossal, Eastern-tinged, midtempo black metal approach of Esoctrilihum is no less potent here than it's ever been, featuring catchy riffs, intimidating vocals, and a thundering, powerhouse rhythm section to tie everything together.

Indeed, one of the strong points of the music of Esoctrilihum has to be the fact that it's a little more relaxed than a mere relentless, dadadadadadada style of ravenous, blast beat black metal, a choice that results in the compositions feeling as though they have a little more room to breathe and allowing for greater, easier absorption of their various layers upon the part of the listener. While the Eastern element isn't necessarily as pronounced as, say, a band like Melechesh, it is still noticeable to the point of forming a vital component of the songwriting, and the artwork for Telluric Ashes even appears to be a nod to this, seemingly depicting some towering, djinn-like being. The music here even conjures several thoughts of the Czech Cult Of Fire, only if one was to swap the ancient Indian aesthetic for a Mesopotamian one.

Telluric Ashes, then, represents more of a building upon a pre-established foundation than anything else. Three impressive albums in already, there wasn't much for Asthâghul to prove with new Esoctrilihum albums, but this one only serves to further cement the talent at the heart of the project. Memorable, well written, and packing a lot of replay value, this is one that should hopefully be topping many a black metal fan's end of year charts when 2019 is said and done.

Give it a whirl over here, and chock this up as another impressive release coming from the almighty I, Voidhanger Records.