While the word “evil” is used in nearly every description or review of every metal record, in the case of DEMONCY's classic Joined in Darkness album, there is simply no more appropriate adjective to describe the sounds within. From the ominous intro track entitled “Hymn to the Ancients” to the melancholic chord progressions of “The Ode to Eternal Darkness,” this album distills evil into its most elemental forms. Joined in Darkness also stands out as one of the comparatively few highly successful albums written and executed by a lone musician. For Demoncy, that musician is the enigmatic entity known as IXITHRA. While the vast majority of “one-man projects” fall limp, there are some, such as Joined in Darkness-era Demoncy, that achieve a sound every bit as powerful as could be attained by a full line up. It could convincingly be argued that the solitary nature of Demoncy lends to the desolate and alien atmosphere that Joined in Darkness evokes. Even the use of a drum machine on this album (before the drum machine became the subject of nearly universal derision) enhances the inhumanly cold feeling of the music. This is representative of Ixithra’s tendency to employ only the simplest tools, but to extract from them their maximum potential. The riffs and song structures, while basic, are executed with precision and exactness. The songwriting evinces a truly visionary ability to piece together instruments and riffs in a masterfully dark manner. Ixithra demonstrates his unique ability to generate fast, low-end minor key melodies that crash suddenly into walls of blackened doom.