The Stone is death-black metal from Serbia. Most of the band members have been active musicians for quite some time. Several of them are also active in May result (still active), playing Nokturnal Mortum-like symphonic black metal since 1995 and having released four albums. In 1996, Stone to Flesh was founded producing several demos and a full-length album. Stone to Flesh was renamed to The Stone in 2000 and Magla is already their fourth full-length album (also released on vinyl!). The songs contain extreme diversities… sometimes the songs are slow, soft, melodic, up to the point that you will get sleepy… and just as you doze off, you will be severely awakened by an aggressive death/black metal part. This part in particular benefits from the contrast, for it makes the sound far more brutal. The slow parts prevail too much, thus creating a delay in the music and making it uninteresting, whereas I would like it to speed up.

Magla of The Stone can be compared to another band that uses many pace-changes: Deathspell Omega. Though musically totally different, this band manages to keep the many the pace-changes on Si Monumentum... sound interesting all the time, without getting boring. The vocals on this album are very diverse. From gasping grunts to extremely low Hate-Forest-like grunts to furious black metal screams to even a harsh and grating clean voice. Drums are often bombastic, sounding like timpani, probably caused by a not too tightly stretched drum skin. Different guitar sounds are used, from sharp and metallic to low and grinding, adding to the diversity of this album. Overall, the album isn’t very impressing. They didn`t really convince me live either, though this opinion is only based on their performance on the Under the Black Sun fest 2005.