_Tetra Karcist_ is fast, ferocious and grim, but so what? That applies to 90% of the black metal on my shelf, much of which is better played and more exciting. The riffs are closely packed together, with some catchy rhythms, rounded with a crisp production thata gives it an extra bite and a couple of decent leads that act as an efficient tension breaker -- but this is hardly sufficient to rescue it from the doldrums.

If this were a debut, I would be more forgiving, but as one of the few black metal bands in a position to release their seventh full-length without mutating into something far removed from the genre, I expect and demand something substantially more than by-the-numbers black metal.