On this split release, we find two bands from the always blooming Black Metal underground, a rather new one with IKANA from France and DEMONIAC from Saxony in Germany, who are around for ages under different monikers. The first three rather long songs are from IKANA, one of quite a lot of projects of Ëffroi, who is responsible for everything here. So it’s really easy to blame him for wasting 25 minutes of my life, listening to the probably most terrible bullshit that was ever released in Metal. This muddled mix of Black Metal, poor Gothic Rock and wannabe Progressive Rock is more than awful. I can’t really find a structure in these haphazardly thrown together noises, the production is so uncharmingly no-fi that I needed to listen closely to find out that those interferences are intended to be the vocals. As I wasted enough breath on this incredible bollocks of IKANA, I turn your attention to DEMONIAC, who come along more enjoyable without any effort. The duo has released only one album in 2016 and a bunch of demo tapes about 30 years ago. After another hiatus, this split is the first sign of life eight years later. And it’s an ambitious one as well, as the first of their two songs, ‘Act I: Requiem For The Apocryphal Living’, runs for nearly 23 minutes. It’s not that easy to keep classical Black Metal enthralling for this long time, but DEMONIAC do quite well here. A lot of breaks, speed changes, samples of ecclesiastical litany and well dosed keyboards keep the tension of the song and avert boredom, even though sometimes in the nick of time. In addition, we find another song from DEMONIAC that is intended only for the CD version of this split release, it’s called ‘Shadows Of The Dead’ and it’s a solid, quite variable old fashioned Black Metal track that somehow reminds me of THE ABYSS, if anybody out there still remembers. Thus the DEMONIAC songs are an acceptable compensation for the ordeal of IKANA. For more visit https://ikanabm.bandcamp.com, https://myspace.com/demoniac_germany and http://misanthrophia-discos.blogspot.com