Origin of Darkness - The Living Darkness (2011)

My only real gripe with this release is that it sounds exactly the same as Catacombs which sounds exactly the same as Hierophant which makes me wonder if John Del Russi (-aka- Xathagorra Mlandroth) has some sort of bizarre form of ADD which causes him to change the name of his band every two or three years. I mean seriously, this is the exact same shit you would have expected from either of the aforementioned bands had JDR managed to release anything without undergoing a brain spasm that caused him to change the name of the band... for the third time this round.

Now I'm well aware that JDR has claimed that this project differs from Catacombs and Hierophant yet again, the only difference that I can make out is the name of the band. All else is virtually identical. The tone, pace and intent is the exact same as that of any one of JDR's other doom projects. Instead of conjuring fourth all of these different "projects" every so often, he should just concentrate on one project and one project alone (new Catacombs album? "hint, hint").

Having said all that, Origin of Darkness is pretty much on the same level as Catacombs/Hierophant in terms of quality. I would have really liked to hear a bit more progression but nonetheless, there is absolutely NO one who should feel cheated after listening to this. If you're a fan of JDR's other work than there is absolutely nothing that should steer you away from this 'ep'. All of the classic JDR staples are in place and as anyone familiar with Catacombs or Hierophant can tell you, this is one heavy ass mother.