Formed in 2015, CULT OF EIBON are literally a band out of time, so richly and robustly authentic is their classic Greek black metal sound. The duo made their recorded debut in 2016 with the 7″ EP Fullmoon Invocation, but it was next year’s IRON BONEHEAD-released Lycan Twilight Sorcery which launched CULT OF EIBON onto the international underground map. With almost preternatural ease, these Greeks hailed Hellas through 32 minutes of mesmerizing mysticism and ancient METAL. Truly, one could imagine the record being released on Molon Lave circa 1993.
In the interim, CULT OF EIBON released a split 7″ with fellow ancient-minded Greeks Caedes Cruenta, but the anticipation (and mystery) built for a full-length work. At long last does it arrive with Black Flame Dominion. Immediately, the listener is whisked to forgotten realms; the sorcery coursing through its atmospheres is potent, the heady, hazy potion pulsing with the same addicting, ageless black magick that made the early works of Rotting Christ and especially Varathron massively influential in Greece and far beyond. Indeed, THAT PULSE is what pulls the listener in and refuses to let go, that locked-in and hypnotic surge idiomatic of Hellenic classicism, as well as liberal layers of swelling synth to fully transport that listener to an archaic age. But, much as they mightily proved on Lycan Twilight Sorcery, CULT OF EIBON’s Black Flame Dominion is no mere work of replication: one must truly LIVE THIS to be able to create it, and a bewitching, almost-(were)wolven identity all their own emerges. Or, put another way, the band’s debut album is an authentically ancient-minded modern entry into that classic canon – no hyperbole, no trends!
Startlingly familiar but also startlingly awe-inspiring, CULT OF EIBON add to their homeland’s enduringly unique “folk language” with Black Flame Dominion. HAIL HELLAS ETERNALLY!
Released by:
Iron Bonehead (Germany), 2021.