The half-hour of music contained on the CD (yes, there's music, too!) delivers a complex journey rich with existential drama. (Stop reading now if you were hoping this was the goriest death-grind since that dream you had about a Tarantino-Romero collaboration on some _Saw vs. Hostel_ hybrid). Spectral Lore invest the 15-minute "Duty" with a sort of martial-yet-melodic black metal that welcomes soaring, romantic leads and spacious moments of unmolested contemplation. The lyrics spin a narrative as dense as the whirling majesty of the music. Locust Leaves (who, according to their cryptic website, may or may not still exist as a band) launch their song "Promise" with a slightly darker, deathier shade, but the results are similarly captivating. There's a greater sense of restlessness with the split CD's second track, until the rippling quiet of the song's midsection takes over. The band's talented singer lifts us away from that shifting darkness four minutes later into a languid doom-like theme that carries the song to its completion.

The music here doesn't ever scream "Look at me!" like a clamorous 7-year-old or, say, Periphery, but the convolutions revealed and unfolding after multiple listens make this split a definite high point in the Greek metal landscape.