The eternal search for the forgotten true Black Metal spirit is uniting all Metal labels of the world and Avantgarde Music is starting a new attempt with the release of the 10th DROWNING THE LIGHT album. The Australian band, consisting of band members of the well known underground acts NAZXUL and PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS, is an extreme active act with dozens of releases since their founding in 2003. If I would be forced to name all their limited EPs, demos and split releases this review needs to be extended about at least two pages but the extreme activity has earned them in some way a special status within the current scene. The album is breathing the ‘true’ spirit starting with a simple but effective cover artwork – no work of a computer designer or an expensive painting – just one of these black/white pictures which brings back the good old times when all covers had been colorless with only a handful of exceptions. Musically the long forgotten Black Metal spirit is without a doubt the driving force behind “An Alignment Of Dead Stars” with an extreme focus on the former elite of Norwegian Black Metal. DROWNING THE LIGHT are presenting over an hour of melodic but nevertheless hateful Black Metal with from time to time strong bounds to the early releases of bands like SATYRICON or CARPATHIAN FOREST. The music is aggressive but focused on an overall dark atmosphere and there is no need to point out any special song. Even with the playing time of nearly 70 minutes the compositions are in some way connected and the album works as one dark manifest. Maybe the unholy grail of our cult is forever lost but DROWNING THE LIGHT are offering a convincing reason to keep at least the hope alive. For more info check www.myspace.com/drowningthelight, www.avantgardemusic.com