Xasthur aims for that grim, lo-fi droning black metal first made famous by Burzum in the early 90s. In fact, I would say that Xasthur actually achieves a kind of ambient, atmospheric effect that Burzum really struggled to obtain. A one-man black metal band (the mastermind here being one Malefic), Xasthur manages to take one guitar theme or riff, structure an entire song around it, and for the most part, it doesn't sound stale. Now, to be clear, there are at least two versions of this album floating around out there: the original version, which was released on Profane Productions in 2001, and the 2003 version, released on Total Holocaust Productions. The difference being that the 2003 TH version has significant production differences and contains 2 extra songs, "Lost Behind Bloodstained Mirrors" (which is an outro track), and "Eternal Empire of Majesty Death" (which is a Mütilation cover). The 2003 TH version is also missing "Summon the End of Time". Malefic himself says that the 2003 version is closer to his original vision of what the album should have sounded like. All in all, a good album, but needs a little more tweaking to stand out among the black metal hordes.
