Deathspell Omega- Paracletus (2010)

After releasing the phenomenal “Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum”, Deathspell Omega faced the impossible task of creating a worthy follow up. Astonishingly enough, they have created an album of equal quality. “Paracletus” is composed of the same elements as “Fas…”, yet it deploys them in a completely different manner. The core of the album is still a maelstrom of hybrid technical death/ black metal riffs played at a relentless pace. These are still contrasted with a number of softer, melodic passages. Again, there is nothing resembling a verse or a chorus (though there are a few motifs) anywhere on the album. However, whereas “Fas…” was an album of sharp contrast and tension, “Paracletus” is a tightknit and cohesive work.

“Fas…” is a big and sprawling album. Lyrically it is oriented from a first person perspective. The music reflects this, building tension through the unexpected, constantly arriving at shocking moments. In contrast, the lyrics of “Paracletus” take the omnipotent third person perspective. Appropriately, the music is of a controlled, directed and focused nature. From the opening moment, “Paracletus” grabs the listener and drags them into its scorching world, not letting go until the final note. 

In the past, Deathspell Omega have shown interest in creating long, fluid pieces of music, writing twenty minute epics like “Mass Grave Aesthetics” and “Chaining the Katechon”. “Paracletus” stands as their most daring and awesome work of this sort; the ten tracks flow into each other with ease, ultimately becoming a single, epic piece of music. Like any great epic, “Paracletus” is full of ups and downs. Blistering blackened death passages build to feverish heights, until climaxing in hellish bursts of fury. These passages are followed by a wide array of clean, melodious passages. The clean passages contain some of the most addictive, dare I say catchy melodies Deathspell Omega have ever written. Having already perfected the art of controlled chaos, Deathspell Omega is now growing by leaps and bounds in their capacity for melody. 

Another highlight of the album is Mikko Aspa’s vocals. Mikko deploys everything from guttural growls to hollow chants to howling shrieks. He effectively uses three languages: French, English and Latin. The French passages are especially enjoyable. Mikko capitalizes on the sophisticated, fluid sound of the language to great effect in the spoken passage of “Dearth”. Elsewhere, French intonations make his reptilian growls sound extra sinister.

It is unfair to pick a highlight from an album that is so powerful from start to finish, but the closing piece, “Apokatastasis Pantôn”, especially captures Deathspell Omega’s unique metaphysical perspective. The song starts by repeating a sorrowful motif from “Epiklesis II”. The lyrics condemn all hope for an afterlife; death is nothing more than silence. However, what follows is not a moment of darkness, but rather a moment of catharsis. The motif bursts into an ocean of ecstatic shimmering guitars reaching visceral peaks, one after another.  It is this stunning moment of inversion that reveals the great wonder of Deahtspell Omega. The darkest truths are also the most powerful.

At the moment, Deathspell Omega is at the height of its powers, having released back to back masterworks. “Fas…” is vast, subjective, tense and unpredictable. “Paracletus” is tight, controlled and omnipotent.  Collectively we have the best back to back releases in the black metal genre since Burzum’s release of “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss” and “Filosofem”. In the same way that those albums set the standard for the past generation, “Fas” and “Paracletus” have done so for the generation to come. The songwriting, composition and musicianship displayed on these two albums will be the measure by which future black metal albums are judged. Whether or not other bands (or Deathspell Omega themselves, for that matter) manage to reach such heights remains to be seen. Regardless, Deathspell Omega has provided us with two infinitely intriguing albums and a dark, harrowing and yet somehow invigorating metaphysical vision of life and death. 

Overall: 10/10

Deathspell Omega- Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum (2007)

By 2007, Deathspell Omega had already established themselves as trailblazers within the black metal genre. Releases like the monumental, iconoclastic, “Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice” and the intricate, progressive, “Kenose” entrapped listeners in a complex web of sounds and symbolism. However, nothing could prepare audiences for “Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum”.  An extremely dense album, “Fas…” contains virtually no repetition of passages, dramatic changes in tempo and violent mood swings. However, “Fas…” is far from a hodgepodge of unrelated riffs haphazardly thrown together. Like Hieronymus Bosch’s legendary paintings of hell, every piece of “Fas…” comes together to depict a powerful and horrifying realm.

The back cover of the album gives a hint of how to piece this difficult album together. The titles and track numbers of the songs are set up in a diamond. Tracks 2-5 make up the four corners of the diamond. In the center of the diamond is “Obombration” (tracks 1 and 6). While the word “obombration” is absent from both English and Latin dictionaries, it is clearly derived from “obumbrate”—to overshadow, cloud or hang over. The “Obombration” tracks are the foundation for the entire album. They are composed of an “om” chant—which in many traditions signifies the sound of existence. Layered atop the om is dissonant keys and chants. Each “Obombration” track sees these basic noises overthrown by dark, violent themes (a funeral march in the intro and harrowing brass fanfare in the outro)—each ending with the line “perinde ac cadaver”, meaning “…in the manner of a corpse”. Therein lies the theme of the album—the inevitable annihilation of all instances of meaningful existence.  

These sounds remain in play throughout the album, becoming explicit between songs and during quieter passages; the inevitable annihilation of life and meaning hangs over the entire album. This is manifest in the lyrics, which give a first person account of a traveler’s journey through a hellish world, in which God is conflated with perdition, death and decay. The lyrics are matched by the album’s artwork. The interior of the booklet depicts a series of images in which healthy humans fall out of a black void, only to slowly decay in the black void’s presence. 

Then, of course, there is the music. “Fas…” integrates a wide array of styles to create a horrific and complex world comparable to the hells of Bosch and Dante. The album is predominately composed of fast, chaotic passages that fuse crushing force of technical-death and the vicious sharpness of black metal. The end product sounds like knives slashing across the face of reality. The wild, disorienting blackened-death passages are contrasted with a number of heavy doom metal passages. Like being attacking by a giant beast, these passages exhibit a stunning and direct force. The heavy sections are contrasted by eerie avant garde jazz passages and a few sad, somber moments. 

The musicianship is top notch throughout—tight, technical and clean—the best I’ve heard in black metal.  However, unlike some technical bands, the visceral spirit is not drained from the music. On the contrary, the technicality only enhances the experience—the listener is confronted with a presence so intense, so overwhelming that it is beyond comprehension. This presence can be called a number of things: death, annihilation, nothingness, but the bottom line is that is simply beyond our comprehension and yet inevitable and real. Perhaps the greatest beauty of the album is that in spite of its dark theme, it is strangely energizing and empowering.

“Fas…” is an endlessly rewarding album. Each listen reveals new aspects and further layers in the mix. Each instrument, each lyric, each image comes together to depict a haunting world that is mysteriously and horrifically a part of our own. The album achieves perfection at all levels; aesthetically, conceptually and viscerally. In short, “Fas…” is high art. 

Overall: 10/10

Deathspell Omega- Mass Grave Aesthetics (2005)

Since 2004 Deathspell Omega has put together a series of stunning works. With magnum opuses such as the blistering, sardonic “Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice” and the controlled chaos of “Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeturnum” it is easy to overlook the trio of twenty minute songs they have released piecemeal. However, these songs are essential moments in the development of Deathspell Omega. 

Of these songs, “Mass Grave Aesthetics” is both musically and philosophically the richest. Originally released in 2005 as part of the “From Entrails to the Dirt” compliation, “Mass Grave Aesthetics” stands at the turning point between the more conventional black metal sound of “Si Monumentum…” and the avant garde style of “Fas…”. Here, the two styles blend into a single astonishing work. The music is mostly composed of classic black metal riffs played with the same scorching hot intensity found on “Si Monumentum…”. However, the relatively formulaic song structures of “Si Monumentum…” are replaced by a complex web of inverting, reversing and twisting progressions that engulf and disorient the listener. Progressions are repeated at varying tempos and with contrasting degrees of layering. Thus, motifs reemerge throughout the song, but rarely in the same manner as before. 

There is also a deepening of the sound through an increased complexity in the rhythm section and a heavy presence of synth. The bassist holds some absolutely astounding rhythms (for example, check out the bass line at the 12:00 mark) and the drummer opts for intricate, jazzy patterns over the blast beats prevalent on “Si Monumentum…”. The synths tend to hold one tone, adding an almost unbearable overflow of tension. Thus, “Mass Grave Aesthetics” displays many of the avant garde elements of “Fas…”, but maintains more conventional black metal riffs, ultimately leading to a more fluid sound than the unrelenting chaos of “Fas…”. 

Conceptually, the song poses the most taboo philosophical question: why not kill human beings if it leads to self-affirmation? The first portion of the song describes the existential process of self-affirmation through murder from a 1^st person perspective. The second portion of the song proposes that the propagation of a faith is contingent on murder and genocide. If this is true (and quite a bit of historical evidence suggests Deathspell Omega are correct), then mass grave aesthetics are the driving force behind the appropriation of religion. 

Most religious traditions use music as tool of self-transcendence and movement toward the divine. Deathspell Omega bastardize this legacy, creating music that glorifies self-affirmation through murder.  The violent and twisted melodies are simultaneously disturbing and delicious. “Mass Grave Aesthetics” is composed of sounds that paint the destruction of human life, but also pleasure and catharsis in doing so. It captures a fundamental interplay between destruction and creation at the most personal level—the threshold of life and death.

Overall: 10/10