Atmospheric black metal, if you like Burzum then you are going to love this album, if you don’t, then even with the description given here of gloomy and tenebrous moods displayed in the album, you will fall asleep while wondering “how the fuck is this considered good music?”

“Xasthur” is a one man project, and as the album easily displays the drums are programmed, the guitars are distorted to an almost unrecognizable level, and the production is so intentionally raw that it becomes an attraction on its own.

So is this a good album or not? well is you saw the score first you know that it’s not, “Subliminal Genocide” is more a piece for the underground lovers to dwell on rather than a demonstration of ability and musicianship; non the less there is some inventive on the way some songs are layered with all the distortion and the melodic riffs, and oh yeah that painful shrieking is brutal, very nice indeed; the problem is that the songs don’t go anywhere, sure they create a very dark and hopeless environment but they never manage to sound like a complete creation, they are just parts of a mood, not a song, not a track, not a melody or rhythm that can evolve into what we can call a composition, they are there just as a background instrument of evil.

Regardless of my opinion “Xasthur” has created quite a big name for it self on the underground black metal community, and this album, because of the way it’s shaping up around many webzines it’s going to become a collection piece, but if you ask me, it doesn’t deserve it.