From the first eerie stirrings of “Laughing Wound”, you know this album isn’t just music — it’s a rite of passage. Predatory Light carve their way into the underground with a debut that’s equal parts ancient black metal, doom horror, and cosmic rot. Released in 2016 via Invictus Productions (Ireland) and Psychic Violence Records, this CD edition brings you a full 41 minutes of dense, spiraling riffs and ritualistic atmosphere that refuses to be ignored.

Formed by members of Ash Borer and Drought, this project drips with occult filth and mystical fervor. The guitars coil and repeat like incantations, laying down spell-like leads over pounding drums and abyssal growls. But make no mistake — this isn’t droning funeral doom. The tempos move, often at a steady blackened march, and when the blasts come, they strike like divine wrath.

Tracks like “Sacrum (Feral Devotion)” and “Divine Membrane” stand out with their haunting melodic phrasing and layered lead work, while “Lurid Hand” unleashes one of the album’s most sinister riffs, tinged with an Eastern flair. The guitar tone is organic and raw but never lo-fi — you feel every vibration like it’s crawling under your skin. There’s a ritual feel throughout — not just in sound, but in structure. This is music for worshipping things best left unnamed.

Mix and mastering are handled with care — crisp cymbals, well-balanced low end, and just enough rawness to preserve that crypt-born grime without sounding like mud. It’s haunting, hypnotic, and genuinely heavy — one of those rare records that feels like a complete world. Yes, some of the lead repetition starts to blend, but that’s part of the trance-state aura Predatory Light crafts.