Dark Funeral - Angelus Exuro pro Eternus (Regain/Riot)

Dark Funeral come blasting out of the blackness with their latest offering. It's a movement up and forwards; it's more technical and varied; and it's also very, very addictive.

An uncompromising release, Dark Funeral's Angelus Exuro pro Eternus kicks off at full speed with The end of human race. It's a feast of minor chords and catchy rhythms. Built on a mid-paced harmonic progression, the first tracks moves into The birth of the vampiir with ease. The pace of track two slows down just over a minute in and provides the necessary variation for the increasing speed of it to recapture your attention. The band manages to keep your attention by virtue of its use of harmonic variation, nicely placed tempo change, and a cinematic drama that underlies Dark Funeral's dense and intense wall of sound.

The third track, Stigmata, is not musically vastly different – some changes in key and tempo are highlights – but it's the hypnotic, repetitious intonation of the word 'stigmata' in this track that is its selling point.

And so the release goes on. One of the things that is so gripping for me with Dark Funeral's particular brand of black metal is the band's attention to composition. You might have a fairly constant and continuous – some would say not particularly unique or interesting – base of percussion, but it's the harmonics in the riffs and the attention to how each of the elements is layered in that makes this release so good.

The other element that lifts Angelus Exuro pro Eternus is the repetition in the harmonic progressions. As they repeat, albeit in slightly different forms throughout the release, it gives you the feeling that parts of it are being tied up together ever so gradually.

Similarly, the slightly militant intro to track seven, Declaration of hate, is closely related enough to elements of Stigmata that it too begins to tie up earlier elements of the album.

The slower In my dreams, which is the second-to-last track on the release, starts to wind the experience down for you. This is really quite welcome, because there is often nothing worse than a full-on black metal release that is skin-shredding from beginning to end without giving you a sense of closure. Even though the final track, My latex queen, ramps things up again, it's again in the construction of the track, particularly in its pacing right at the end, that brings things back to a real closure.

Dark Funeral's previous effort, Attera Totus Sanctus (2005) was good; but Angelus Exuro pro Eternus is attention-gripping and demanding of repeat listens in the way that Attera Totus Sanctus was not. Maybe it was because Attera Totus Sanctus is the only Dark Funeral release not produced by Peter Tagtgren – he was back on deck for the latest release. I'm not going to speculate on that, but it's an interesting parallel nonetheless.

While Angelus Exuro pro Eternus is excellent on a good stereo, played very loudly, I found that it's not until you get it right into your ears on headphones that you really experience this release and all of its tiny nuances. In particular, if you're feeling a bit misanthropic, there is no better album than this to accompany you amongst the proles as you go about your day-to-day business.

There is no doubt that this latest release from Dark Funeral is worth your hard-earned. It's quickly earned itself a high ranking amongst the vast number of releases I've come across this year, and it's one that I never go past listening to over and over. For me, that alone is a solid indication of a great release.

Dark Funeral's Angelus Exuro pro Eternus is out now on Regain/Riot. You can get your copy here.