Review by Felix on April 20, 2026.

Back in the mid-eighties, "Brutal Destruction" was the name of an album from Belgium. Cyclone, recently re-vitalised, sang about "Incest" and further nice things. This was okay, but it still took 30 years, until Flemings and Walloons experienced the real devastation. With the first releases of Possession, everything was upgraded to a significantly higher level of murderous energy. Of course, bands like early Ancient Rites, Enthroned and Slaughter Messiah had already catapulted the home of Tintin on the global black metal map. But Possession have their very own approach and, despite a long period of silence, they have not changed it. Mega-heavy guitars fascinate with stoic, minimalistic lines or they create a raging inferno as soon as the drums give full speed ahead. Both facets are united by their mercilessness. Each and every second of "The Mother Of Darkness" reflects hell. No doubt, the vision of a place of total torture has been translated into a form of black / death metal which is almost second to none.

It is amazing to see how the quintet creates such a gargantuan impact without using extraordinary tools. The comeback is filled to the brim with sinister leads, hellish screams, death-heralding lines and almost exploding drums. All these ingredients are great, but they do not explain the infernal magic that distinguish Possession. The way how they combine the elements, how they put their conviction in each and every tone and how they avoid any sign of open-mindedness for influences from other genres – this and their outstanding songwriting skills make the difference from my point of view. Violent killer songs such as "Latrodectus Tela" or the title track appear like a mixture of alarming air raid sirens, a thousand thunders and a choir of tortured souls. Not to mention "The Wild Hunt (Let Them Run)". No, my friends of Watain, this is not the kind of wild hunt you know (which is, by the way, not wild at all, but a commercial stinker). Possession are breaking bones left, right and centre and they love to do it in an apocalyptic speed. However, they are also able to integrate some morbid guitar tones (beginning at 3:19) which coalesce with the general Armageddon the song represents. You have survived this track? You are entitled to get a free hearing aid for the rest of your life.

The sheer vehemence of the material does not mean that spirituality does not play its role here. The songs appear blood-soaked and possessed by a thousand demons. A murderous atmosphere takes possession of the listener, while "Evil" is written in extremely big letters all over "The Mother Of Darkness" and the expressiveness of the diabolic voice puts the cherry on the cake. The guy who is responsible for vocals combines three virtues in one person: he has been a part of Cruel Force, he has been involved in Nocturnal and he is German (well, this is a discussable advantage). Anyway, speaking of Cruel Force, this spring really spends a lot of great albums – and "The Mother Of Darkness" is one of them. It is a record whose production is just one plus point which cannot be overlooked. Not overly transparent, but perfectly placed in the middle between foggy/dark and professional/clear, the all of the regular eight songs burst out of the boxes and transform my living room in a wasteland of ashes and embers. Okay, not really, but it feels exactly like this. Anyway, if I would not be already f**king 57 years old, I would join the "Young Blood Ritual" immediately, to mention another superb song.

If there is something on "The Mother Of Darkness" I would not describe with the word perfect, it is the configuration with one intro and two outros. Of course, the intro with the ominous keyboards, the intense ringing of bells and the demonic whispers sets the stage and the insane sounds of the fiddle in the middle of the album have a horrifying or psychopathic charm, but why does "Cry-Shine-Die" have its own intro additionally? Why do we get another outro at the end of the track list? Anyway, all these minor details fade away when it comes to the great picture. "The Mother Of Darkness" is pure horror at the junction of black and death metal, complete morbidity, relentless misanthropy – the total triumph of a blasphemous yet maliciously elegant bestiality. Anything less than a clear-cut recommendation to buy this work would be an unforgivable mistake. Perhaps even the guys of Cyclone bow down to this form of brutal destruction.

Rating: 9.4 out of 10

Review by Michael on September 28, 2022.

Sagas guitarist Ian Crichton, Saxons drummer Nigel Glockler and vocalist Robert Berry (ex-"3") have formed a new group called Six By Six. This sounds pretty confusing because each of them has their own style of music in their original bands so the question about their actual style of music is pretty much justified. But as justified as it is, it is also quite tricky to answer that. But let's start from the beginning. First of all I have to state that these three musicians did an amazing job on their instruments. Of course we all do know Nigel Glocklers superb drumming in Saxon which he proved last year on “Carpe Diem” but also Ian Crichton did a fantastic job on guitar and Robert Berrys vocals sound as if a 30-year old guy would be singing there. No sign of age in sight!

'Yearning To Fly' is the opener of the album with a total running time of more than 45 minutes and a very proggy and calm rock song with a lot of (early) Rush-reminiscences when you take the guitar work and the synthies. It spreads a calming and positive atmosphere and with its very melodic and catchy bridge it is a heart-warming and perfect opener for the self-titled album. The same goes for 'Skyfall' which is a little bit heavier and because of the vocal / guitar patterns in the verses slightly more dramatic. There are some other calmer tracks to find but I will go more into detail about them a little bit later.
The heavier facet of the album starts with 'China' which is the heaviest track on the album and where the crimes of the Chinese government against the Uyghurs and other people are subject. I guess (I just wrote about a song by Asphyx in the past) Six By Six don't have China as prior sales market in focus. The song is pretty heavy and is what you can call a classic hard rock / heavy metal song with a very catchy chorus and some really cool breaks and guitar riffs. Nigels drums sound pretty much powerful here and underline the heaviness of the track. 'Casino' has a nice tropical atmosphere with the guitar solo (which is often repeated) and some other proggy influences that may be originated in the late 70s. Of course that is no surprise when you consider the background of the three musicians. Coming back to some Rush-tunes, 'The Last Words On Earth' is a wonderful arranged heavy song that isn't too difficult to follow even though it has some fantastic twists and turns in its 4:37 minutes. It creates a very thoughtful atmosphere, may it be because of its title, its lyrics or the melancholic parts scattered here and there.

Although there aren't any weak or boring tracks on the album, at least I do have some more favorite ones. And for this I do come back now to one of the calmer tracks. In 'Reason To Feel Calm Again' it is absolutely amazing what the band has performed. Starting with some bagpipe-like tunes that let appear Mel Gibson playing William Wallace in Braveheart before my eyes, the track has this what you could call a classical drama in literature: exposition, rising action with some guitar riffs, the climax with the verses and some really dramatic twists and after that the falling action where bagpipes are played again. 'Battle Of A Lifetime' may be the most melancholic track on Six By Six. The acoustic guitar brings you back into some ballads of the 70s and the rest of the track is also back to these days. It is another very catchy song the guys have written and again the lyrics are also very thoughtful.

So, maybe you got some interest in Six By Six with this review – I just can highly recommend it to you when you like some more progressive sounds combined with heavy metal. For me, this is a very big surprise and I am glad that I didn't miss this release.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10 dinosaurs (Nigel, you know what I mean!)