OK. At first glance and with the name of the tracks, I thought that Marc had sent me a black metal band by mistake. Come on – tell me that if you only read the song titles, things like "My Name is Legion for we are Many", "Dirge of the Crucified", and "Forging the Gates of Gehenna" you wouldn’t come to the same conclusion! So I put it in prepared the worst. I’m not a fan of black metal, but I was willing to take one for the team. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this has more in common with Lustmord than with Emperor. In fact, track 8 (Of Empires Burning) sort of reminds me of a track off of Heresy. It wasn’t until after I had listened to the album all the way through that I noticed that the email was for Steel Hook Prosthesis. I wasn’t familiar with this side project. This is nice noisy ambient that never really threatens to get out of control. It’s a good illustration that noise can be pleasant to listen to and that subdued can sometimes be much better. I can’t really think of too many comparisons at the moment because there are not a lot of people who do this kind of work. The low points of the album are tracks 2 (My Name is Legion for we are Many) and track 9 (Cerebus) because of the inclusion of heavily distorted voice / samples that intrude on the soundscape like an unwanted house guest. The voice is so distorted in track 9 that you cannot even try to make it out. Track 2 seems like a sample that just doesn’t work. That said, the rest of the disc makes up for this weakness. This is good music to put on for reading. It doesn’t demand too much attention from the listener, but occasionally gets noisy just when you’ve begun to ignore it. If you think that dark ambient lacks complexity and is a bit boring but think that most noise albums are out to kill you, this is your happy medium. Unfortunately, this is already sold out from the label, but if you happen to find it, pick it up. This is a good one to take a chance on.