(K-RAA-K) release cloven-hoofed misanthropes Silvester Anfang?s first proper release on thick black wax. And it?s about time. These guys have been spitting out blackened CDRs and cassettes as the Funeral Folk Collective like the San Fernando Valley produces porn and I?m very thankful for one. On the cover the group stand in lush woods, shirtless, their heads covered in white hoods, holding two white goats tethered on ropes, a couple of members holding wooden staffs, and what an impression it makes, but not surprisingly really, what else would you expect from a collective that has band names like Jesus Balls and Chainsaw Gutsfuck. Anyway, it?s an impressive image and really it does do well in giving an idea of what lays wait inside the recordings. Where in Belgium?s blackest take bells, acoustic strings, electric guitars, flutes, cassettes, melodica, shambolic drumming and who knows what else and making them metal, black metal, blacker than the blackest black times infinity. With ney a power chord in sight this revolving cast of satanic contributors create the soundtrack to mysterious rituals, conjuring the deepest darkest hippie nightmares you?ve never been able to imagine. The first track, "Kraaien op het veld (Demonic Agricultuur II)" opens the LP by building aforementioned shambolic percussion, plucked strings and feedback into a hypnotic thudding raag and chant, until eventually a totally menacing blues guitar punctuates the darkness, leaving you haunted with the ghosts of every blues man that ever sold their soul to old Beelzebub. The rest of the album basically follows suit; slowly developing improvisations that eventually take flight into heavily blackened acoustic jams of the finest order. This is really a beautiful record, and that?s what makes it menacing in my book. If your reading the pages of this website chances are you probably don?t need to be convinced, but fuck it, I?ll say it anyway, you need this. You know that emptiness you feel inside? This will fix that for a second. Even if the music sucked (which it definitely doesn?t) I?d keep it just for the cover. 9/10 -- Nathan Young (17 April, 2007)