Besides a compilation, this is the third album from the Romanian outfit (active as Argus from 1996 until 2005) including members of Negura Bunget, Din Bard, Dordeduh and other similar acts. Starting from a Black Metal matrix, the five musicians have developed a personal and diverse style.

The recording was made at the Consonance studio as to drums and keyboards (the former being steadily present and massive), and at the DSPro studio as for the rest.

The lyrics of the 4 tracks are in Romanian and talk:
-a chariot in the sky
-the throne of a guardian
-white hidden shadows
-pieces on a chess put under dark clouds.

On the subject of the CD artwork, first of all it has to be said that it's hard to distinguish what comes from a photo, a drawing or digital rendering; the front cover art portrays a wood with several dry branches dispersed in the cosmos, and more precisely inside a spiral wrapping them up.
The disk shows a mountain and lake view under an overcast and starry sky of the same theme as the paper artwork.

Accompanied by an official video directed by Bucharestian Alexandru Das available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZnQc25thPU, "Carul Cerului" begins with an empyrean keys solo followed by thunder; then it's the turn of a frosty guitar riff preluding to drumwork. Later on Black Metal blastbeats with keyboards in the background show up, cut off by an old school mid-tempo. It is finally time for clean vocals on the path of Borknagar and Vintersorg, ensued by an alternation of blasts and structures at medium speed. The finale recurs to a noise run reminding witches singing in a circle from a distant sabbath.
"Tronul celui ce stă de strajă" immediately assaults the listener, soon to slow down and offer vibrating keyboards lines which guarantee variety before the successive vocal attack; here the keyboard player is matching well remaining on not too fast paces. Afterwards, a noteworthy rhythmic change intervenes to threaten until a majestic part with clean vocals appears, just a few seconds before a second layer of male clean vocals is utilized to embellish the composition.
The rapid and ferocious moments give an impression comparable to being ambushed by a wild animal while walking during a snowstorm; after them a slow portion of the track alà My Dying Bride precedes a keyboards solo and subsequently some growling on delicate keyboards notes. A following instrumental chop containing a guitar solo is replaced by a riff that changes everything, using Black Metal screaming and syncopated drumming. In the next fraction the song becomes more Progressive Metal; the vocals are now effected, almost Industrial. Thick keys and low-mixed drums playing an unusual blastbeat pattern are entwined with wicked almost-growling vocals, while the closure is entrusted with a malefic, unique, memorable riff which gets faded out.

Glacial Black Metal with keyboards accompanying at a distance commence "Umbre în piatră apuse"; in some passages the Romanian squad reminds me of Twilight Is Mine, although Argus Megere are using lower vocals. Then there is a preliminary music share that turns into atmospheric Black Metal with and without its typical screams. A sudden break dear to Hellhammer's fans resorts to tribal drumwork repeating itself for a couple of minutes until the arrival of the beauty offered by the intervention of celestial keys first, moments in the vein of Pink Floyd throughout an unhasty and heartfelt guitar solo in the second place, and very evocative clean vocals that bands like Hour Of Anguish often resort to, finally. In a later moment, the frontman transforms his emissions to a Moonspell-styled growling that reveals extreme suffering. A second long axe solo tinges the song with melancholy and performing skill; as a matter of fact the guitar player exploits two-hand tapping, alternate picking, string bends and hammer-ons till the conclusion executed with faded-out keyboard lines.
"Tablă", the last track kicks off with serious and noble Black Metal mid-tempo, which changes into references to Immortal and similar misanthropical combos. An interruption delivered by guitar and drums in unison works as an introduction to the finest keyboards solo. Recitative clean vocals come back prior to a diabolical variation with effected scary vocals, liquid keyboards, sulphureous guitars, and tolling bells. After a while the wicked form of Black Metal we already know is back shadowed by an infernal instrumental structure and secondly by funeral and demonic Black Metal. It's interesting to observe all the embellishments the drummer executes in this track part preluding to a naturalistic fraction making a resort to clean vocals. A bass solo makes a display and successively the other instruments reappear; among these, a semi-distorted guitar presents us with a lengthy solo which contrasts with the aggressiveness and cruelty shown earlier. Statics soon make way for angelic keyboards finishing the piece, which fades out exactly like the previous tracks did.

Writing 4 tracks with an average length of 11 minutes without boring, annoying or sounding too hard to listen to the end is all but an easy task. Yet the Timisoarans have made it effortlessly and that's the reason why they've become one of my absolute favourites. They are the complete embodiment of what I love about ferocious Black Metal with atmospheric and epic nuances.
I'm so convinced about the quality of this album that I dare to say that fans of Moonsorrow, Falkenbach, Negura Bunget and so on should order or buy a copy of " Veii" without even giving it a listen to ahead.