It's a brief diversion as the rampaging full on rock of "Pyromancer" arrives, but it's the last 20 minutes of the album that really shows how magnificent Sahg can be in full flight. "Wicked Temptress" and "By The Toll Of The Bell" could easily sit on the debut album but they really have saved the best for last. "Monomania" is the closing number, all eleven minutes of it, and it's a track so good, it makes buying the album essential all by itself.
Let's take up with Olav Iversen again. "We didn't know what the last half of the song was gonna be like, but after a few bottles of wine, we decided to have a go at it anyway. The vibe and the atmosphere were just right for it, and we just jammed out the last part there and then. So, everything you hear on there, except the vocals and the Hammond organ, is totally live."
And it's a stupendous piece of music, the creepiest, most atmospheric piece of psychedelic doom you're ever likely to hear, one part Trouble, one part Hawkwind, one part Pink Floyd. It's a mammoth slab of music that twists and turns its way into dark recesses of your mind, you'd much rather leave without illumination.
This is still one of the best metal albums you're likely to hear this year, saved by an incandescent second half. If you haven't heard the debut, this could still blow you away, but for those of us still besotted with the debut it's a matter of so near, yet so far.
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