Astaroth, Prince of hell. Eurynome, daughter of the ocean. Bael, first king of hell. Amduscias, grand duke of hell. Take the first character of each of these mythical deities and there we have the name of the band of which this review is going to be all about. With their name, AEBA manage to describe what their music is about quite well. Extremely dark and aggressive, with a hint of melody at the right time. This German apocalyptic black metal band has been preaching evil things since 1992, and now it’s time for their latest piece of work, Kodex V.

AEBA decided to take the sensible approach with Kodex V. After an atmospheric intro with a cool distorted riff, the mid-paced ‘More Than Hate’ kicks in. This song is surprisingly melodic, more than we’re used to of the Germans. But don’t be alarmed, there are no keyboards or clean vocals to be heard anywhere. Add to that the cool (melodic) guitar solo that they’ve added and we’re off to a pretty good start. A few tracks further, I’m even more at ease. The pounding battery, the relentless riffing and shredding guitar solos make this an effort I’m actually enjoying very much, as I did with their '97 effort Flammenmanifest. I’m not one to listen to black metal of this kind very often, but the intermezzos with clean guitars and the fantastic quality with which this all has been recorded have already made this album to one of my favorite black metal releases of this year. It has to be said that not all of the lead guitars sound that good and that they had better left them out at certain points on the album.

Lyrically, the Germans are – as usual – all about evil things in general. Lovely, nothing to deeply think about; just ranting about hate, killing and demons. For if you want something else to listen to than your average pop-rock band.

A great production and some really cool – unexpected – twists in the song structures make Kodex V more than worthy of a recommendation for black metal fans around the globe. It’s more hardcore than commercial, yet highly accessible for people who want to get acquainted with extreme metal. Listen and enjoy.