You'd think Ricky Hoover made a deal with the devil. Just over a year since inception, Vegas blackened deathcore collective Ov Sulfur has burned bright as a Norwegian church.

Debut LP 'The Burden Ov Faith' is the morning after that blasphemic blaze, the sun shining through ash floating like snow. It’s opulent in its cinematic beauty, yet with an underlying darkness that won't wash away. It's an epic call-to-arms, not to raise one’s torch as much as question why they would. Less burn down a church and more take down religion as a whole. It’s about to get goddamn apocalyptic.

The burning church is as much about illuminating Hoover's longstanding qualms with religion as obliterating it. Yet obliterate the album does, starting with slamming firestorm “Stained In Rot,” teasing Hoover’s impressive singing, contrasting his gnarly gutturals. “Befouler” follows with technical riffing and an unexpectedly catchy chorus, before crumbling into a brutal breakdown ft. Alex Terrible. That Hoover keeps up with that masked madman, Left to Suffer’s Taylor Barber and Bodysnatcher’s Kyle Medina is impressive though not surprising. That he holds his own alongside the operatic Howard Jones (Light The Torch, ex-Killswitch Engage) is. The epic title track closes it with beautiful melodies care of Lindsay Schoolcraft, formerly of Cradle of Filth.

Ov Sulfur’s debut spans the stygian realms of deathcore, black metal and metalcore, creating something as majestic as burgeoningly hook-laden and brutal.