What’s most striking about this cruder yet no less powerful recording by the band’s original line-up is how well-versed in the art of epic structures and crushing mid-tempos they already were. As suggested by the dreamy organ/acoustic guitar introduction known as “Frostbane Overture”, far from the expected occult-obsessed or tales of misery, those Finns instantly take you here far away in a mystic and dark world full of wizards, cosmic forces and dark tales. It’s no coincidence that this five tracks and 43 minutes long first impressive recording pinnacle turns out to its final and crushing track “Upon Shattered Lands”, where frontman Kari Kankaanpää screams at the sky that he’s aptly been “Destroyed by Death/Possessed by Doom”…