Agape supplicants, sitting naked in a circle, surrounding an infant dangling by its feet – all as an offering to a terrible god. The cover art of "Circumambulating The Stillborn" is a perfect illustration for the music therein, ugly and dissonant Black Metal. It seems like DEATHSPELL OMEGA gave birth to a new subgenre of discordant Black Metal when they burst onto the scene, but thankfully most, to include SERPENTS LAIR, have avoided the ‘random patchwork arrangement’ problem that the Frenchmen have always suffered. These Danes’ songs flow nicely from wicked riff to riff, revealing thorny chords and nauseating progressions. My only gripe about this band is the simplistic and mushy drumming. Lots of midpaced parts would have benefited from some well-placed rolls. With a powerhouse skinsman, this band could rise to the next level. My opinion of corpse, maybe ‘fancy drumming’ is not desirable for this style (i.e. not ‘cult’). In all, this is quite a good debut I would say, bringing to mind both the primordial SLIDHR and their predecessor, MYRKR. More information at: www.facebook.com/serpentslairband, http://serpentslair.bandcamp.com, www.hellthrasher.com