Baptism are back with another pure Black Metal assault that will make you tremble and hide for cover.

Portraying everything that the Finnish movement stands for, Baptism play Black Metal as it should be: ugly, violent and heavy as fuck. Absolutely no flashiness or whatsoever is portrayed through the album, only pure, simple Black Metal riffing in the coldest vein. The album excels on portraying an extremely grim atmosphere and the band has more intensity that any other band playing Black Metal at the moment.

In all honesty there’s nothing original in the album, it’s absolutely pure Black Metal, but I must say that what Baptism lacks in originality they absolutely succeed in terms of brutality and melodic quality, with enough killer riffs to keeping you coming back for more.

Production wise the album is less raw than Wisdom & Hate, but it still manages to maintain the hostile aura perfectly intact and I’m sure some people will prefer this approach.

In my personal opinion, I found Wisdom & Hate better than this one. While Morbid Wings of Sathans focuses a bit more on an aggressive approach, Wisdom & Hate was the more melancholic of the two, with more memorable riffs (the riff of When the Night is Immortal will always burn in my heart), and as I prefer melancholy over aggressiveness I found this new one a bit less fitting to my taste, but it still remains one great album nevertheless.

Without a doubt the best album released from the big names of Finland (Horna, Satanic Warmaster) this year and an album that deserves a place in any serious Black Metal collection. Baptism is pure hatred and you know you want that.