The Swedish MONSTRAAT started off like a lot of other Black Metal acts – as a one man project. For eleven years, singer J.L. was the only member of the band and managed to release a demo tape. But it wasn’t until 2011 that the band was completed with M.N. on bass and J.M. on drums and guitar and gathered speed. A year later, another demo was recorded and after another year passed, the self-titled first album saw the light of day. Now, the three piece is back with an EP called “The One Eternal”, my first contact with the music of MONSRAAT. And this first contact was a fine one, even though the band from mid Sweden is far from revolutionizing the Black Metal genre. The whole EP sounds familiar, in a very positive way. I can’t help calling MONSTRAAT a Black Metal band in its purest form, maybe also in its truest form, if you want to call it like that. The four songs are charmingly raw in their production, have refreshingly primary fragments of harmonies and melodies and get their final polish with the utterly hoarse and voice of J.L.. Additionally, MONSTRAAT know when songs need a break or a change of the overall high pace. All these merits, in combination with the not too extensive playing time make “The One Eternal” a very diverting listening pleasure that has its highlights in the second half with the rather harmonic ‘Voidlike Sky’ and the intense ‘Dead Eyes See’. MONSTRAAT turned out to be a nice surprise and grew to a personal tip of mine. Check them out at: www.facebook.com/pages/monstraat/1442366162659509, or visit their label: www.facebook.com/fallen.temple.1