"Epitome of Illusions" is seven songs of re-recorded material from Limbonic Art’s demo-recordings before their first album and masterwork, "Moon in the Scorpio". The characterizing element of this band for me, and most other listeners, has been Morfeus’ complex keyboard work, that clearly surpasses all the pitiful commercial pseudo-classical easy-listening muzac of the NWONBM (New Wave of Norwegian Black Metal). In his influences you can hear both old voidic, cold space synth like Tangerine Dream and epic classical composers like Wagner. The guitar riffs on "Moon in the Scorpio" were simple and left to the background, useless in setting melody against the galactic keyboards, but useful in producing a reality of painful distortion, to exist as the lower spheres of the music like a set of chains to hold the structure to the ground. The guitars are more prominent here, as the songs obviously rely more on tried, conventional black metal patterns. They have never used a bass and coupled with the thin, ticking, fast drum machine, this results in a serious lack of bottom end especially on this record, as the keyboards are not taking care of it all the time. Of course, the bottom end has never been important in black metal, but the lack of it makes "Epitome of Illusions" sound particularly weak and only halfway executed, as the quality of the keyboards aren’t even near the magnificence on "Moon in the Scorpio". To top this, the keyboard instruments used here are of a thin sound and obviously lower quality. Daemon’s lyrics match the concept but his vocals are an interesting listen only when all the other elements are in their place. In the record they admit that "it’s a fucking cliché when bands release their demos after releasing a couple of albums". They shouldn’t have succumbed to it, then.

© 1999 black hate