Prometheus was a titan. You know, one of these big, hulking and athletic old Greek dudes. Mess with a titan and you’ll have to count your balls afterwards. It appears that ancient Greek stuff has bad karma, ‘cause I’ve had some bad luck coming my way before this review took shape. A broken promo disc, little spare time and an impossible deadline. But here we are in our comfy reading chair, glasses on the tip of our noses, venturing deep into the world of dark black metal. Do I still have your attention?

Promethean Gift is the second mini album that the Finnish black metallers Black Crucifixion released back in 1993. It’s been quite a while, but it seems that the band got lots of good reviews and a constant demand for the disc. Reason enough to print a re-release, aaaight?

It’s something different from what the die-hard black metal fan is used to, but that may just be my assumption. The slow pace that defines classic black metal albums is carried on through this mini-album, and the quality is loads better than I’d initially expected. Instead of three-spore tapings, there’s a fully digitally (re)mastered track list featured on Promethean Gift, a pleasant surprise to say the least. Alas, that only goes for the mini-album itself. The bonus discs are three-spore tapings. But for the fan and the cult freak (according to the biography I’m bringing shame to myself right now by calling those tracks ‘cult’) they are a nice addition.

The vocals stand out in particular, not because of the brutal screaming / grunting, but more because of the lack thereof. One could easily argue that dark black metal needs a dark, grim voice rather than flesh tearing screams, but I think it would fit the atmosphere better the other way around. The bonus tracks actually do feature the classic filthy black metal guttural scream, which quite simply made my day. It’s just a pity that the quality of the aforementioned tracks is not even worth crying over. Furthermore, let’s not discuss technicality here; it’s the simplicity of the music that makes it actually quite enjoyable to listen to and encourages you to delve deeper to actually discover the band, not just to take notion and empty your bladder afterwards.

Black Crucifixion is a band that needs time - time to listen to and time to discover. In all honesty I can say that I need more time with the band’s work to be able to fully appreciate them. I do believe, however, that they must have some ‘titan’ cohones.