Hebosagil
Lohtu (black)
"For its fourth and best album, 'Lohtu' ('Solace'), the quintet has perfected a sparser approach that intermittently exhibits nuance and restraint. Yes, the rhythm section still deals in tightly choreographed violence, the singer continues to sound as if he might knock out all your teeth, and the two-guitar whorl retains its sandpaper abrasiveness and keenly filed edges. But Hebosagil now specializes in a slow, searing burn rather than a relentless barrage. Traces of bittersweet forgiveness and bliss flicker where unobstructed anger once blazed. It's a gray, harrowing, and elegiac brand of heaviness that doesn't so much hammer you bloody as permeate your pores and overpower your subconscious. You'll go along willingly, if you know what's good for you." ~Jordan N. Mamone, New York City December 4, 2015. Limited to 350 copies on black vinyl.