BLUT & EISEN PRODUCTIONS is proud to present the third album from one of black metal's brightest/darkest hopes, BARSHASKETH's Ophidian Henonis. Originally hailing from New Zealand but later relocating to Scotland, BARSHASKETH have been patiently perfecting their bewitching craft these past five years, away from prying eyes but with sights set on diabolical fullmoon mysticism. Theirs is a sound that resonates with the stripped-bare, nightsky purity of second-wave black metal, from the ancient days when black metal was truly a cult for criminals and diehards. Ophidian Henosis is BARSHASKETH's grandest distillation of these eldritch energies yet. At once familiar and foreign, Ophidian Henosis explodes forth with cryogenic violence and fog-drenched atmosphere, arcing about with subtle shifts in texture and twists in composition, maintaining a headspace of otherworldly splendour whilst never lingering too long in a monochromatic mire. For however committed to purist black metal BARSHASKETH may be, their journey across Ophidian Henosis is a multi-hued one, recalling the early days of Sacramentum, Kvist, Setherial, and Isvind among others - in other words, the spectral darkness of the mid-1990s - and brimming with a passion and poignancy that can only come from the most obsidian of souls. Ophidian Henosis marks the beginning of BARSHASKETH's ascent...(NTB)
