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PARACLETUSDEATHSPELL OMEGANorma Evangelium Diaboli, CDHere it is – the French masters are back with what may very well be the most hotly anticipated album of the year. And with good reason, since 2004's “Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice” and 2007's “Fas – Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum” are both regarded as milestones not only in the band's discography, but in the history of black metal as a whole. The former opened the floodgates of religious black metal, a different kind of black metal, less normative, less conventional, with a religious fervour that can be felt and lyrics that finally pushed the boundaries of the rather stagnant scene, proving that black metal can and indeed does better than “Christraping Black Metal” and “Fistfucking God's Planet”. The latter introduced the world to the concept of entirely dissonant riffs, further shunning the conventional song structure and bringing into the scene what seems as complete chaos at first. While DSO haven't exactly invented any of these two features, they've managed to approach and merge them so well that they remain the benchmark for avantgarde black metal to this day. With all this in mind, how could anyone not barely wait for the break of the three-year silence from the band? If you've heard the band's previous output, then it should be fairly easy to break this album the following way – 70% Fas, 20% SMRC and 10% of new elements. If you haven't, what the bloody hell are you waiting for?! The band is more chaotic than ever, the entire album basically being a single long track, but with riffs coming and going, repeating in various time signatures, intertwining, sweeping one over another... Yet in all this chaos, one discerns a very strong coherence. That's the beauty of this album – it takes all the classic DSO ingredients and makes a perfect mix out of them. The crystal clear production found with Kénôse, the erratic riffs of Fas, the melancholic passages of SMRC... It's all thrown in for good measure. While the guitars have remained largely the same over the years, the vocals and drumming haven't. The vocal style is similar throughout most of the album, but still more varied than ever before, with parts in Latin, English and French, sung either in deep growls, vibrant rasps or clear chants. The drumming has improved in particular – well, more than enough to actually notice them separately, which wasn't the case before. The overall flow is so good that you'll feel the need to spin the album again as soon as it reaches its end, which wasn't the case with Fas, for example, despite sharing almost exactly the same length. Influences are too numerous to even discern, let alone classify in a review, but it's certain that this is the most progressive and varied release of the band so far, the track “Dearth” being the perfect example thereof. The lyrical content remains cryptic, but worth having a look at, since it's miles ahead of your standard black metal fare, as usual for the band. All in all, this album has surpassed my expectations, if I could even say I had any. The progression leap is nowhere near as drastic as SMRC –> Fas, but that's nothing negative with such a high-quality release overall. Not only is this the album of the year 2010, but I'm firmly convinced that this will remain as one of the most relevant black metal albums in history. And before bashing me for making over-the-top statements, spin the album, and as “Apokatastasis Pantôn” draws to its end, just dare tell me I'm wrong. Vladimir Gojkovic (10) |
PUBLISHED ISSUESMETAL SOUND #mpu vorbereitung |
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