Sometimes I really look forward to picking up a new album. Sometimes I have all sorts of expectations in my mind about the album before I ever hear it, but sometimes an album just sort of comes along.

I bought Opus Eponymous completely on a whim. I had no idea what I was getting into - & I'm glad.

These six creepy and extremely secretive individuals put together one of the best debut albums by a band that I have ever heard.  While shuffling through the vast selection of albums in the Heavy Metal aisle at FYE, I saw this album and immediately knew it was something special.  The pale, eerie ghoul fashioned in a Cardinal outfit (a likeness of lead singer Papa Emeritus) and the subtle and not-so-subtle Satanic imagery is enough to stop any metal head in his tracks. 

From the very first word on the album, you know what these guys are about.  After a brief creepy organ intro, the song picks up into a Black Sabbath style riff and then you hear it: "LUCIFERRRRRR!"  And now, you're hooked!  From beginning to end, this album expresses the band's love for Satan.  While they do mention Satan a lot, it doesn't stop there! They also reference other dark and evil things such as witches, human sacrifice, evil rituals and even mass murderer Elizabeth Bathory.  As dark as the album is, it doesn't come across as aggressive and angry as you would expect from a band with this type of lyrical content.  The vocals are very calm and mellow, the guitar riffs are very catchy, the drums are nothing special but serve their purpose and the keyboard offers this certain sound that gives you chills. It has a very 70's rock feel to it.  As a whole, the music is very good and very different from a lot of the stuff out there today.

To quote James Hettfield of Metallica "...A breath of fresh air for metal."  Tracks to check out are "Ritual", "Elizabeth", "Satan Prayer" and, though its not on the album, their cover of "Here Comes The Sun" by The Beatles. Who knew the Beatles could sound so creepy?