Sutekh Hexen - "Luciform" (2011) [Wands Records]

2011 is truly the year of Sutekh Hexen. The raw black metal duo of Kevin Gan Yuen and Scott Miller have spent the past months churning sold-out release after sold-out release, currently totaling three separate 7" EPs and a triple cassette box, carefully tuning their sound. After so many successful recordings, it was only a matter of time until Sutekh Hexen released a full-length and, after many months of anticipation, Wands Records presents to the public this California duo's mighty Luciform.

Luciform is defined as "of or pertaining to the qualities of light," which is a perfect description of Sutekh Hexen's shining demonstration of their mastery of the "black noise" style, but I can assure you there is no light here. The six disturbed hymns that comprise this twisted, churning, blackened mass  lurch forward like a searing wind, slowly wearing away at everything in sight. This blistering album, while boasting some of Sutekh Hexen's "cleanest" and most recognizable guitar work, is still masked by Sutekh Hexen's signature, Xenakis-esque walls of horrific, incomprehensible noise. A maddening struggle through pure inorganic sound and disembodied shrieks, this is the perfect balance between black metal and noise that experimental musicians have been desperately seeking from the days of Exmortes and Abruptum. When this album destroys the walls that surround you, lay back and prepare to be obliterated yourself and become one with the noise.

Though Sutekh Hexen hasn't really shown any real "change" or "evolution" in style aside from some sound quality shifts, I still found myself enjoying Luciform, as I expected I would. Sutekh Hexen doesn't need to change to be awesome - Sutekh Hexen just...is awesome, and in the truest sense of the word. It is awe inspiring how raw and fierce one recording can be, and to be consistently as such is mind-altering. Interesting story: while listening to this album I found that the extremely loud hiss being emitted from the needle hitting the record itself (this is a LOUD album, guys) ended up being more prominent than the black metal being emitted from my speakers, so I ended up sitting between the two sound sources and had a unique "stereo" Luciform listen. I'd recommend trying it at least once.

Supply is dwindling, so be sure to pick up one of the LPs (limited to 350) NOW before Luciform goes the way of every other Sutekh Hexen release.

-Jon