_I - Apophänie_ covers a wide range of the metal spectrum. It presents a thick emulsion of doom, progressive and post-metal. It contains six tracks that don't have names per se; just roman numerals from one to six. Over their total length of sixty-three minutes, vicious blasts and trills will explode in your face for short bursts and then an acoustic section will take over to spread serenity on the scene. Doom-like chugs are interspersed over some clean vocals only to hand over to some of the raspiest black metal screams I've heard in 2012. A guitar lick with an oriental hint will elevate proceedings to new heights and then a powerful beat takes over to provide a sturdy platform for some more of these raspy vocals that deliver the lyrics in German.

These twists and turns and many more like them are all over _I - Apophänie_ and it's not the album to pick tracks from because they all meld together very nicely; as nice as post-black doom metal goes. So take a deep breath and dive a little deeper into the extreme metal underground; we don't have cookies but you'll definitely have a good time here with Schattenbrandung.