This band has been around for a while, as this is their fourth album, but I had never heard them before this. Aetherius Obscuritas is a Hungarian one-man band screeching forth with a very orthodox and traditional style of Black Metal. There is some excellent riffing going on here, some of it having an epic, almost Bathory feel to it. The guitar tone is good, and the songs have a lot of dynamic, not stuck at one speed for the whole thing. There's nothing new or revolutionary here, but AO do a very good job at what they do. The only beef I have here is the vocals, which are not bad or anything - they're actually a quite venomous shriek - but they are mixed way too loud, so it's hard to hear the cool guitar work and partake of the atmosphere, as there's always this dude screaming in your ear. Viziok is a powerful, enjoyable disc of second-wave BM. It has flaws, but it remains cool nonetheless.
