As far as I know this is the first l release of this LA based sludge quartet, good for some 25 minutes of doom/sludge with blackmetal’ish scream vocals. Mastering of this release was taken care of by James Plotkin of .O.L.D. and Khanate fame… This does however not mean that Ancient Altar delivers us the next big thing in DOOM/Sludge world…. It seems to me that the stripped down bare sound approach from Ancient Altar comes with a shortfall in the overall wall of sound this kind of doom / sludge needs. Ancient Altar have the potential 2ND track EK Balam, shows this , it’s just not showing enough in the production and the sound of this self-titled release.. I recommend to listen to the album a couple of times than decide to go for it or not.