Portugal. Once again, you bring me the good stuff. If I want some wretched, atmospheric black metal; this is the region I'm going to these days. I did a little homework, but I wan't able to pull up much on this project other than the country of origin and that this is their second EP, A Desolação (The Desolation). Not even a translation of the band name. But I suppose a little mystery lends itself well to the genre. In any case, if you are a fan of black metal, you are in the right place.

What I have to say is fairly brief, but don't take that to mean that the music is not good enough to warrant an essay. Rather, these 3 tracks are fairly uniform leading to a pretty basic description of the instrumentation itself. It's a constant ebbing, throbbing of grimness. Not a vileness based on speed, but rather darkness and shadow. A zombifying bobbing and rocking that takes the mind to places it maybe does not belong. Nightmares. And it's this ability to evoke and invoke that makes Ocerco worthy of a full review slot in my book.

While Ocerco keeps things pretty simple within all of these 20 minutes of haunting music, it leaves something behind. An idea, a disturbance, an unshakeable feeling. It's like those stories of kids who got drunk and stumbled through a graveyard, or a blockbuster family about a kid who lucid dreams himself a bit to far...and something follows them back. The accompanying feeling of dread: that's A Desolação. If you have a bit of morbid fascination, press play below. Just don't blame me for the black silhouettes haunting your bedstand at night.