Style: Dissonant black metal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Being dropped into an unknown place. Everything is foreign, you understand nothing... and everything has a deep malevolent hatred towards your very existence.
Thoughts: Deathspell Omega is quite possibly one of the most important bands in metal. Not just black metal, but metal in general. With this album they expanded the definition of black metal and challenged the ears of many listeners with sounds that had never crossed their ears before.
The albums that came before this could not have prepared me for the chaotic storm that is Fas... The first moments of Obombration show the slightest glimmer of the insanity that this album contains. A slight off kilter note, a hint of dissonance is observed but mostly it's merely an incredibly ominous introduction. It has the liking to a caged beast, testing the bounds of it's confines from time to time. It has not let on to it's captors that it has found a way to shatter it's bonds.
For the final moments of peace on the album a short chant is heard, similar to the peace that is found on Si Monvmentvm... It is a moment of reflection, the fleeting moments of sanity.... for the beast is now uncaged.
The Shrine of Mad Laughter is as aptly titled a song as I've ever heard in my life. The madness that is contained within even the first few seconds of the song has been created to obliterate any shreds of sanity that the listener has left.
The first time I heard these riffs I had never heard anything like it before. I had heard dissonant music in the past such as Blut Aus Nord, but this was something different. This was more primal... more focused. Despite all of the conflicting notes happening at once the music has a cohesion to it that tells me that every. single. note. played is with the utmost intent.
There is a section towards the end of the ten minute run time of The Shrine of Mad Laughter where it sounds like the guitars are playing random notes. For the life of me I could not wrap my head around this part for years and years, and even when I could start to it still would lose me. It wasn't until I focused in on the drums playing with the guitars that I realized how incredibly intentional and intricate this section was. Everything matches with the utmost perfection... there is no randomness to this... this is all with the most malicious of intents. It was at that moment that I realized the genius of Deathspell Omega.
Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aternum is one of the single most important black metal albums to be released outside of the inception of the genre. The band has created something... a beast, a golem, a masterwork. The band uses both their instruments and silence as weapons to assault the listener with notes that I recognize but I do not understand their relation to each other in the context provided. I've gotten used to it over the years, but I still feel a deep unease when I listen to this album. This is the true spirit of black metal.
Written July 24th 2024
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