Devar - Mausoleum (2LP)

Review

It's full of old school black metal influences matched with 70's prog, weird art rock fused with driving heavy metal and tormented King Diamond-esque vocals with stranger and more nasal clean stuff. It's a difficult record to really wrap your head around, but it's also a surprisingly easy one to wind up falling in love with. Mausoleum is an album that challenges expectations; while it certainly fits into the world of black metal it's also unafraid to navigate far outside of that realm, hinting at far darker and more transcendent things. There's an ethereal beauty to the record that you can't truly put into words, and one which forces us to re-evaluate what black metal can really be. Much as bands like Sigh forced us to look at the utility of jazz and avant-garde techniques, Devar brings the listener face to face with some of the strangest moments of the 70's. - Metal Injection 4/5