Black metal has always had the nuts and bolts to do for metal what My Bloody Valentine did for pop music. The washes of keyboards, the frenetically insistent drums (or drum machines) and the dirge-like guitars all have the potential to create a sonic scrim that both hides and illuminates.

Blood Red Fog Fields of Sorrow (Sol/Deviant)

What really helps are the doomy elements that Blood Red Fog brings to its songs. These are long, extensive musings that inhabit a world behind the veil. I've gone back and listened to some of the band's earlier works (which are the more standard tinny-sound black metal), this is a real step forward.

Now, does metal (or even black metal) really need a MBV makeover? Prolly not, but it does sound really cool. This is best appreciated by those who approach metal from a conceptual as well as a visceral standpoint (that is, you like the music to stimulate your mind as much as your, um, heart rate). There are a lot of ideas swarming around, and they're not always easy to discern. Of course, its easy to take a break and simply marvel at how amazing it all sounds.

The songwriting is first-rate. These songs work in both the doom and black metal universes. That they've been translated into what the label calls a "possessed, trancelike state of creativity" (buy that publicist a beer!) takes this to an entirely new level. If you don't like metal (and particularly, these subsets of metal), you're not likely to think much of this. But if you like to hear the sonic envelope pushed in ever more unusual ways, Blood Red Fog would like an hour of your time. I suggest you take the boys up on their offer.

Jon Worley