ROSETTA

Probably not the most festive Christmas music you could think of here, although you could keep your father busy for a while by getting him to sync up two stereos to play these two discs simultaneously, for the full effect of the work. Of course, then you'd have your grandmother pissing herself as she faints into the mashed potatoes, and the little cousins seeing the third eye of God as ROSETTA's apocalyptic endtime crushdrone kicked in, and dinner would just be ruined.

If the digipak format and the Aaron Turner design didn't tip you off, ROSETTA is following in the footsteps of NEUROSIS and ISIS, creating music that's at once thunderous, epic, ambient and insidious. And fear not, you can listen to both discs separately — the heavy one is a massive wall of seething squall all on its own, while the ambient disc is hypnotic, harrowing in its own way, sounding like transmissions from the other side of a black hole.

It could be said that ROSETTA doesn't add much of their own imprint to this by-now-familiar sound. But for one, they do it really well — listening to this album is an all-encompassing journey, and nit-picking about who they sound like doesn't cross your mind until well after it's over and you're safely back on earth. For another thing, keep in mind that this is their friggin' debut — they're already on par with the masters of this style, and they've got nowhere to go but up.

You know if you like this kind of headtrip, and if you do, ROSETTA comes highly recommended. Shoot this one out into a galaxy near YOB, NEUROSIS or CULT OF LUNA, somewhere where everything is frozen and the glare of supernovae blows the mind of even the most hardened traveler. Outer space metal epics, cold and alone, urgent yet sprawling, and utterly immersive. If anyone out there does get both discs going at once, let me know – unless it rips the time-space continuum, in which case I'll see you in hell.