FROM THE CRYPTS - CELEBRATING PAST ALBUM RELEASES in the HISTORY of HARD ROCK & HEAVY METAL… Deathspell Omega Double Header!
On November 8, 2010, Deathspell Omega released their fifth full-length studio album Paracletus via Norma Evangelium Diaboli along with Season of Mist.
It is the third part in their metaphysical trilogy of albums representing God, the Devil and Man (following Si monvmentvm reqvires, circvmspice and Fas – Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum).
Background:
The term paracletus is the Latinised form of the Greek word παράκλητος (parákletos), meaning comforter. It is another name for the Holy Spirit.
Stylistically the album continues in the experimental vein of their previous work since 2004. The tracks are mostly continuous, being more movements of a larger piece than individual songs, although there are slight pauses in between tracks 3 and 4 and between tracks 5 and 6. The track Devouring Famine was released as a free download by Season of Mist approximately three weeks before the album's release.
Critical Reception:
In a review for AllMusic, Phil Freeman wrote;
“French Black Metal mystics Deathspell Omega play things close to the vest. They don't tour, their lineup is purely theoretical (no band photos, ever), and they don't do interviews. They say everything they want to say through their music, which takes the aggression of black metal and marries it to the compositional complexity of '70s creepy-prog acts like Van der Graaf Generator and Univers Zero, the latter in particular. This album is the culmination of a trilogy that began with 2004's Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice (in Latin, If you seek his monument, look around you) and continued on 2007's Fas -- Ite, Maledicti, in Ignum Aeternum (in Latin, By divine law, go, you cursed, into the eternal fire), the point of which is to seriously debate Christian theology -- God versus Satan -- from a base of deep textual knowledge.
These folks have not only read their Bibles, they've read years' worth of theological interpretation and argument, and while they mock Christianity, they do so from a perspective of thoroughly informed respect, ultimately seeming to reach the conclusion that to be human is to be satanic and that God demands that we renounce our innate nature. None of this matters, of course, unless the music works as music. If the sounds aren't interesting, the band might as well send out the lyric sheet as a pamphlet, to be read and debated. And musically, this is Deathspell Omega's most conventional release since their early, pre-trilogy releases. It's extremely aggressive; the guitars break into post-punk dissonances from time to time, but the female vocals and choral interludes that marked Si Monumentum are gone, as are the passages of creepy near-silence. The rhythmic complexity and intricate compositions of the last two albums remain, but the music barrels ahead at all times, ten tracks of theological debate set to blasting riffs and punishing drums, with the vocals croaked in English, French, Latin, and maybe another language or two here and there. Deathspell Omega are black metal's deep thinkers, and if this isn't their masterpiece (that would be one or the other of its predecessors), it's a superb cap to a major multi-part work of art.”
Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells
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