Ill Omen’s third and strongest album yet "?.THY.RIFT", featuring a more dedicated adherence to slower, more doom-oriented tempos, which accentuate the album’s ritualistic nature. Black metal has long been a vehicle of choice for an individual to express oneself independently and solitarily, albeit with differing degrees of success depending on the quality of the artist’s songwriting ability and musicianship. When these two attributes are of a higher caliber, a one-man entity completely devoid of the potential need to compromise his vision with those of a group of collaborators can flourish. Perhaps it is for this very reason that IV, the lone member of Ill Omen, has again succeeded in creating some of the most resonant black metal of recent times with “?.Thy.
