Looking over the band’s history and taking in the general imagery and presentation of the band and its members, I think we may have a bit of a MGLA clone here. No offense to the band, but I was wrong (you know what they say about judging a book by its cover). Speaking of covers, I enjoy the album art, the colors and the imagery. Good job. Now on to the music. There is a bit of a mid-era ENDSTILLE sound happening at different moments, be it with the vocals and the aggression of the music. Touches of DARK FUNERAL with the guitar riffing as well. In further, it may be just me, but at times I also get a Metalcore influence happening. Again, I see this with the vocals and certain moments in the songs. Speaking of the songs themselves, they are a tad long and some tend to meander a bit. Two are intro and instrumental and in the main five songs, none are under five minutes. For example, the title track ‘Aphotic Embrace’ touches in at a bit over nine minutes. I found myself losing interest a bit. When this happens, I feel you tend to not appreciate those great moments or moods in the songs. Granted there are some stand-out sections and the musicianship is top-notch plus the vocals of LCF’s Saw are dynamic and varied. Having said that, I feel the songs could use some trimming down. I think they would deliver much more of an impact. Other than some nip and tucks song-wise there is not much to complain about. The production is well done and the band’s overall sound is varied and dynamic to draw in listeners of the aforementioned bands and those who appreciate the slightly more ritualistic take on Black Metal. www.facebook.com/zwielichtbm, www.facebook.com/vanrecords