Description
Black vinyl with lyric insert and the Crushing The Holy Trinity split material as bonus
With Satanic lyrical themes, “Presence” is split into three tracks (I, II, III) with each one seemingly being an extension (or somewhat modified recital) of the previous. It’s ice-cold hateful Satanic Black Metal, fueled with chainsaw guitars, slicing tremolos and thin snowblasted yet ominous vocals. The simple ingredients above make for an outstanding and essential Black Metal release: it’s delivered honestly and directly as you expect true Black Metal to do: no flamboyant drum fills, solos or electronics, things are kept raw, simple, yet undeniably powerful. MGLA don’t break new ground, but masterfully execute their music with a style that is certainly their own. The Presence EP is under-produced enough to not sound like a demo, and clean enough to not sound over-professional (think of a colder production of Weakling’s “Dead As Dreams” album). The production balance sits perfectly over the musical structure, and the snarled vocals cut through the thick textured wall of drums and guitars on each verse. Beautiful. The four tracks on the B-side comes from the Split album Crushing The Holy Trinity. This is riff-oriented black metal, and bands like Darkthrone and Moonblood come to mind, though they are able to distance themselves from the numerous clones which exist these days. The vocals are quite raspy and incomprehensible (though the lyrics are in English), but nevertheless, the riffing is excellent and the overall musicianship is above par. Outstanding. I highly recommend this band to any Black Metal enthusiast, as judging from their small amount of available material, MGLA could gather a strong following with their established, yet somewhat unique style that plays no games with what it attempts to achieve.
Track listing:
1. Presence I
2. Presence II
3. Presence III
4. Power And Will I-Crushing The Holy Trinity 2005
5. Power And Will II-Crushing The Holy Trinity 2005
6. Power And Will III-Crushing The Holy Trinity 2005
7. Power And Will IV-Crushing The Holy Trinity 2005