For those who know and truly understand actual underground black metal, Mons Veneris require no introduction. For over 20 years now, this shadowy and insanely prolific Portuguese cabal have pursued a uniquely vile vision with an unquenchable thirst. From hammering primitivism to medieval melancholy, volcanic drone to chaotic oblivion, nods to the French Black Legions to frequencies far outside of metal, there's never any guarantee of how Mons Veneris' vision will manifest itself - only that they'll explore a darkness few have the constitution to tread. Witness their Ascent Into Draconian Abyss, which was teasingly released in an extremely limited tape version for those who had the good fortune of attending the most recent Signal Rex-curated Invicta Requiem Mass festival and witnessing their crimes in the flesh. As the duo forecasted with the recent maxi-single Excesses of Perpetual Gloom, their muse only becomes thirstier and more miserable. Mons Veneris are always surprising, yet always uncompromising and always themselves, as testified by Ascent Into Draconian Abyss: the opening 20-minute title track is a harrowing descent into lunacy, and the ghoulishness only intensifies on the album's successive three tracks. More monkish vokills come forth, haunting like nothing else as their buzzing belligerence winds through craggy corridors of mondo-primitivism, all before the hall-of-mirrors madness of closer "Chant to the Unknown." Mons Veneris will fuck you on your Ascent Into Draconian Abyss!
