In many ways ignored due to its position just before the mighty 666 International, Dødheimsgard’s sole EP to date Satanic Art is still more than worth a listen for any fan. Really, the longest piece here, Traces Of Reality, is amongst the band’s greatest moments, bursting into life as it does with possibly the best usage of violins that you’ve ever heard in a Black Metal track. Riff upon riff falls in a torrent of experimental darkness... it’s defiantly Avant-Garde, incorporating strange vocal effects and piano interludes, but the base sound is Black to the core; as a stepping-stone between their two main sounds – Black Metal and Industrial – Satanic Art is vital.

It’s an interesting listen all around. Fans of Satyricon’s excellent Rebel Extravaganza will recognise a similar twisted atmosphere, a sense of oddness that becomes more strange as the EP progresses and The Paramount Empire (an earlier song, revealed on this EP for the first time) comes to life with Vicotnik’s batshit vocals sending all sorts of shivers down your spine, whilst the opening and closing piano melodies of Oneiroscope and Wrapped In Plastic provide an uncanny wrongness all of their own. As an EP, Satanic Art more than performs its duty; it enthrals, it draws you in, and it definitely leaves you wanting more. That ‘more’ would be provided by 666 International, although it’s not the grandiose wonder that Traces Of Reality suggests, it is a whole other trip altogether, but that’s another review... In the meantime, Satanic Art is more than worth hunting down for Traces Of Reality alone.