Ah, yes, the "mythical" American black metal band (Sothis hail from Los Angelos)....this is the context in which many staunch bm fans around the world would treat modern bm bands like Sothis and Abigail Williams. Well I say "fuck you", because Sothis (like Abigail Williams) are an excellent example of a decent American black metal outing, albeit with some symphonic leanings. On "De Opresso Liber", it's hard to initially distinguish these guys from the likes of Siebenburgen or Fairytale Abuse, but they do have a distinct sound, however minutely different from these other bands. Much like the other bands mentioned within this writing, Sothis are a hardy, aggressive, and hungry band who puts forth a valiant effort in this release. I personally find that the keys/synths in this record could stand to be minimized or removed altogether - the music of this band stands perfectly fine WITHOUT the keys. But whatever, it seems to be a trend within a lot of bm bands to be unable to make any music without atmospheric synths, and so I will accept this, but damnit - this album just doesn't NEED it.

The meat and potatoes of this album speaks for itself: we've got decent guitar tone (though it could be louder), inaudible bass (it's black metal, fuck it), honestly GOOD drumming featuring plenty of blasts and double bass, those goddamn synths that for some reason rub me the wrong way, and nice raspy, cold and hateful vocals that really tend to make up for the fact that this band needs to let their synth star shine every 2 seconds.Tracks that stand out are "Of Night And Silence", "De Opresso Liber", "Obsidian Throne", and "The Cold Disconnection". I'm giving this album a rating of 5 drunk monkeys out of 10, merely because they sound completely unoriginal, although thoroughly inspired. Good album if you're a fan of having every single symphonic bm album under the sun: useless if you're looking for something innovative in black metal.