Hohl - Black Mass: Ritual Holocaust

From the poisoned backwaters of  Minnesota dwells a ancient power called Hohl!
With disgust and repulsion the one & only member Haborym Mastama spits forth his hymns of destruction!

Nostalgia of old great empires is something that i feel is flickering inside this compilation of previously unreleased material, partly it reminds me a bit of Satanic Warmaster (which is great!) with its raw but melodic riff structures but Hohl infuses enough of its own chaotic spirit to truly stand on its own!
The songs is in general quite long which Haborym uses to his benefit by composing many great build ups and fitting tempo changes like in the middle of the great song "Eternal Winter, Eternal Night".
As this is a compilation the songs has not been made to be together in the first place but i cant say this is a problem because they float together great anyway, sure if one really dissects the songs there is quite some differences  in the overall song structures and mood  but that not unusual for regular albums either soo...

The production as you may already understand quite raw but it is not raw RAW but it balances it all with ease,  a eerie  grand darkness builds up along the road and it grows nicely after each listen. Distant howls of rapture is floating in the back of my head as i reach its end of this record.
If you already know of & like Hohls music this is a no brainer (get it!) and for those who dont this works good as any as a starter album.

Track list:

1.     Wolf (Battalions of Darkness)     06:27    
2.     Sickness unto Death (Original Mix)     04:56    
3.     Eternal Winter, Eternal Night     09:07    
4.     To Cull the Herd     11:35    
5.     Sacrificing the Flesh of the Untermensch     04:56    
6.     Sinister Revelations of Black     10:26    
7.     Premonitions in Blood and Fire     06:35