Empusae – Symbiosis

Whoa, this is pretty different for Empusae. This release is actually quite martial/neofolk, which I suppose isn't surprising given the guests. Empusae does a good job bridging the gap between his usual atmospheric technoid/tribal sound and the dark, ancient, organic martial/neofolk sound. The vocals actually work surprisingly well too - the only ones I don't like are Ordo Rosarius because he can't sing, but that's nothing new. Beyond that, I pretty much dig the entire rest of the album. Very dark, very atmospheric, very organic. Something different for Ant Zen, but certainly worth getting for fans both Empusae and the guest musicians. If you don't know who any of the guests are, you'll probably want to preview before buying.