After doing a short bit of research on the good ole Wikipedia (the closest yet the human race has gotten to becoming Borg), I learned that VORKUTA is, amazingly, not just a silly name intended to sound grim or tr00; VORKUTA is actually the name of a coal mining town in Russia and was the sight of a labour camp circa 1941. As such, it is no doubt a place of stark hopelessness based on its history, and also a very fitting name for this group of Hungarians who were obviously still left wanting more after their bellies were full of an odd Transylvanian Hunger.

"Into The Chasms Of Lunacy" is one unrepentantly bleak album. It oozes a thick, odorous (Oderus?) sense of oncoming doom. The anaemic guitars, anguished howlings, and EMPEROR-isms; It is all here in spades for you, the loyal listener. Right from opening track "Warriors Of Past" the tone is set. A kvlt tone: a tone that is the approximate aural equivalent of tying tin cans together with string then crushing a small cat at one end, simply to see how the sound translates. Each song twists and turns through its blast-beated base structure, taking brief pause to build an honest atmosphere and a slight bit of groove, and in that respect the album is somewhat textbook and quite in line with the Black Metal aesthetic. I caution, however, that if you employ a guitarist named Hellspike, well, you just have to expect some pigeon-holing. I am not even touching the fact that the lead singer is named Blizzard and looks like Abbath. Wait a minute...

All goes according to plan until the final track, "Within The Fortress Of Melancholia". Keys sweep gracefully as an angel in flight, synth lines dance and dart about the odd sonicscape with the ease of razorblades on ice. There is nary a hint of anything short of beauty, a beauty that anyone can appreciate and not just the cranks who eat this stuff up like Ritalin. "Within The Fortress Of Melancholia" breaks the mould. It fumigates an otherwise disgusting proposition and makes a lotus rise from the crap surrounding. That is not to say that "Into The Chasms Of Lunacy" is a poor outing, in fact the opposite. It is everything that Black Metal once was, embodying an attitude and willingness to buck a trend and do something truly original. VORKUTA should serve as a lesson to all the one man USBM acts out there: in a world where everyone is trying to out-evil (and under-produce) everyone else, the music is what truly makes a difference. Given the right amount of push, VORKUTA can make a difference. And if they don't, maybe we will still be able to see them on Ruthless Reviews in their Top 10 Most Ridiculous Black Metal lists.