Always feverish in his creativity, HAIL CONJURER returns to the album front with his sixth, Earth Penetration. Indeed earthy and penetrating - or perhaps virile (and vile) enough to actually penetrate the earth in a manner most sexual - Hail Conjurer here erects a murky-yet-spacey landscape of elevated crudity. For sure, the bass-heavy black metal that's the band's stock in trade is a doomy one, but not doom" by strict definition; rather, ancient touchstones like very earliest Samael, Goatlord, and especially Barathrum get minced and mangled with an auteur's touch. It's rude and ritualistic, mind-expanding and body-defiling, and the synth/organ-led spaces are alluringly creepy beyond compare. Sin and sensuality have a new definition with Earth Penetration."
