There’s plenty of talent out there in the sprawling landscape that black metal has made for itself over the years, and while there are always a few names that have long stood out for all that they’ve done for the sound as a whole, there are still those that stand even further apart from the rest in such a way that has earned them a unique air of reverence. Since its run began over ten years ago, Yellow Eyes is a name that everyone in the world of modern black metal should be aware of in some form or another. Long has this act been carving its own path through the underground with every album seeing something new and fascinating brought from the band’s expansive arsenal of talent. With the arrival of their seventh album, Yellow Eyes offers us a new vision of majesty and evocative intoxication the likes of which is a true feast for the senses.

Despite having just put out an album just two years ago, the sheer fervor and drive of Yellow Eyes is clearer than ever before with everything that’s been brought to the table throughout the band’s longest album to date, “Confusion Gate”. Acting as a conceptual sibling to its predecessor, this album has practically everything that Yellow Eyes has become known for with their unique sense of dominance over black metal, unexpected melodic presences, and a singularly enthralling form of songwriting that pulls you deep into their works in virtually every instance. “Confusion Gate” offers you a vision of something so menacing and so unknown that the black metal with which comes across as a pitch-perfect medium for such a theme that you are truly pulled ever deeper into the cascading rhythms, haunting atmospheres, and undulating intensity that Yellow Eyes commands with absolute ease and complete mastery. This is a record filled with warmth and cold in equally captivating measures, ensuring that Yellow Eyes is able to flaunt its prowess in each of these ten tracks whether it’s in the form of a procession of black metal majesty or an acoustic right turn into the unknown where only Yellow Eyes has ventured.

This is a record that demands the whole of your being. To offer less is to miss out on some of the absolute excellence that Yellow Eyes demonstrates one song after another. Quickly, it’s made apparent that this can be argued as some of the best work that Yellow Eyes has put out to date with the weight, capacity, and execution of everything that this album is coming together to make for a truly wonderful performance that goes beyond black metal, becomes something more, and makes damn sure that Yellow Eyes is a name to know more than ever before.

LISTEN to “Confusion Gate” on Bandcamp here.

FOLLOW Yellow Eyes on Instagram here.