From the cold Canadian wilderness of Alberta comes Weapon, a very traditional black/death outfit who constructs songs around lawless darkness. With Weapon there few yet solid constants. Relentless brutality is the name of the game, and Satan himself is dealing. If you would like to imagine one of those green transparent visors, go for it. _Embers and Revelations_ may have snuck up on me like a crafty bear, and much like the aforementioned metaphor, resulted in violent and surprising display of ferocity. Weapon rules and their albums leave me with raised bruises.

_Embers and Revelations_ is Weapon's third record in a short existence. This is also the band's first release on the very trustworthy Relapse Records. I think they will settle in nicely. Compared to the previous releases, _Embers and Revelations_ seems to be taking the svelte approach to making metal. No song goes past six minutes, and the majority of them hover around the three minute mark. It is strange to think of metal that is not grind being so reasonable in length. I was prepared for 11 and 20 minute tracks. I can do this in a morning. It does not take that much time to peel skin from a face.

Within this short time period, Weapon delivers many surprising blows. Not only is there a clear and structured delivery of black/death but the band interjects an almost endless variety of fun elements like wild OSDM guitar solos, gang vocals, and multiple instances of backbreaking grooves. I would be wrong to call _Embers and Revelations_ a party record, but hell this thing is too fun.

One of the main attributes for _Embers and Revelations_ is the slight Middle Eastern influence. The use of Persian scales is similar to the work of Melechesh in that it provides a winding path for the instrumentation. This is what makes songs like "Crepuscular Swamp" and the maybe based on a Bollywood movie "Shahenshah" so rewarding. The music curves and twists around the listener, resulting in a hellishly exciting experience. This record was a surprise in the fact it firmly plants itself as a memorable release of late 2012.