Warthur Deathspell Omega's second concept album surrounding their philosophical contemplation of Satanic metaphysics is a real treat for those who don't mind (or positively enjoy) a little Satan in their metal and are interested in experimental black metal formats which stretch the boundaries of the genre. As well as including some intriguing quiet moments between its eruptions of black metal fury, the album is also significantly more varied than many avant-black metal albums when it comes to the actual rocking out - at points they create a chaotic wall of noise, but there's moments where almost traditional metal riffing will break out unexpectedly here and there. A complex and fascinating album.

Conor Fynes 'Chaining The Katechon' - Deathspell Omega (10/10)

Deathspell Omega is a band that has had the same effect on me that only a few others like , Opeth, Blotted Science and Voivod have had on me earlier in my life; they have effectively changed the way I look at metal. With Deathspell in particular, they demonstrated to me how far the black metal style could be pushed forward. and ever since, their modern classic of controlled madness 'Fas, Ite - Maledicti, In Ignem Aeturnum' has been one of my top favourites. Naturally, I was spurred to listen to as much Deathspell Omega as I could after hearing how incredible these guys are, and while their earlier output certainly does not have the same impact on me as does the later, I do consider them to be a remarkably consistent band, and absolute innovators. Leave it to a band like this then to create an EP that leaves my jaw dropping.

'Chaining The Katechon' (also known in longform as 'Veritas Diaboli Manet In Aeturnum: Chaining The Katechon') is a single song EP that lasts twenty minutes long. Much like a progressive epic, this is a single suite of complex composition where Deathspell Omega brings their greatest elements to the table; their darkly philosophical and disturbing lyrical content, their madly technical and dissonant performance standard, and that pleasant sensation of having one's soul torn open and having hell pour in, you know, the sort of atmosphere that only a band like DSO could foster. Despite merely being an EP, this is wildly challenging music, and there are enough musical layers and ideas to keep a listener busy for weeks. 'Chaining The Katechon' begins abruptly, jumping straight into a barrage of musical fury and Deathspell Omega's trademark rasps. Beginning an epic without any flowery build up introduction is startling, but it works so well; there is not a second on the epic that seems meant to fill up the disc time.

While 'Fas' was an album intentionally void of much in the way of 'beauty', there are actually some melodies this time around, although not nearly enough to make the band any more accessible. For the most part, this is a continuation of the sound on the band's fourth album, but in between bouts of madness and technical loops, there are parts here where some melodies from the guitars are allowed to escape from the wall of sound and be heard. Most times, these melodies aren't beautiful in the traditional sense, but when compared to the very ugly and complex fury that Deathspell Omega is used to churning out, it is a really welcome change of pace.

The guitars all feel dissonant and out-of-tune, so it becomes so surprising that Deathspell Omega is able to craft some massively powerful grooves with them. More than a few times here, Deathspell changes up their tempo and allows for a slower, but still intense aggression that is sure to get heads banging along, despite the avant-classical sensibility here that would make one think this was purely music to sit down and carefully analyze. This is indeed music to feed the intellect, but that doesn't mean to say that there aren't parts here that will get the listener fueled as well.

One last thing I will mention about the album are the vocals. As one could have guessed, the rather standard rasps here are the least impressive thing that Deathspell Omega goes for on 'Chaining The Katechon', but I have found it strangely poignant and interesting that no matter how intense and complex the instrumentation and music gets, the vocals maintain their reserved stance, rasping away, but rarely letting loose. The strength of having the vocals in this music are obviously for the lyrics- which are common to go into bouts of archaic Latin- and while they may be mixed just a little too highly compared to the rest of the sound, these dismal rasps only compliment the dark atmosphere that the band crafts here.

'Chaining The Katechon' is easily one of the most profound EPs I have ever heard, not only in black metal, but in my experience with any music. There is more than enough musical depth here to be worth the same concentration that a full-length album would warrant, and no matter how many listens I put into this thing, I always seem to be hearing new things in it.

Conor Fynes 'Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice' - Deathspell Omega (8/10)

Black metal has sure come a long way since it was first planted almost thirty years ago. Although most of the old ones (and many of the newer ones) opt for a straightforward leap into atmosphere and darkness, there has been a trend to take this extreme style of music to new heights of artistic merit and ambition. Deathspell Omega first started out as one of those straightforward bands, with such album titles as 'Inquisitors Of Satan' to back up the claim that they weren't exactly trying to reinvent the wheel at first. On their third album however, the band took a huge leap, experimenting with song and album structure, using conceptual themes and twisting genre, and most of all; tightening up their musicianship to become one of the most fierce black metal had ever seen. Although Deathspell Omega have since gone even deeper into the rabbit hole with later albums, 'Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice' is among the most innovative and groundbreaking black metal albums ever released, and still stands as an excellent album within the band's catalogue.

Latin for, 'If You Seek His Monument, Look Around You', 'Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice' is a vast concept album revolving around none other than Satan himself. Taking a leaf from the classic albums of progressive rock, the album is structured in a very intentioned way, with more atmospheric interludes (called 'Prayers') breaking up the otherwise rampant black metal. Far from being ambient doodles, these 'Prayers' take on very interesting turns that show some of the band's greatest progress from their early days. 'First Prayer' is an obscenely dark introduction to this album, with sampled female chanting only adding to the eerie psychedelic tinge of the guitars. From then on, the remaining two 'Prayers' are what little respite the listener will get from some incredibly dense, challenging black metal. In a move quite uncharacteristic of black metal, the band is very technically complex, with the term 'calculated madness' coming to mind.

The guitars and drums are so blazing and intense that it often comes across as being too much to digest for the first few spins of the album. The madness forces a listener to pay full attention to the music, lest the complexity will come across as noise. There are also less aggressive moments where the malefic atmosphere of the music is allowed to take full charge and push the listener to the brink of insanity. All the while, the raspy snarl of the vocals preaches on about Satan in archaic English. The vocals are the only part of the album (and Deathspell Omega's music in general) that doesn't wow me. Although the lyrics are sometimes beautifully poetic (considering the subject matter), the shock of the 'evil' vocals gets old fairly quickly; they stay fairly monotone throughout, with only a few exceptions where the listener gets to hear something else. Fortunately, that 'something else' turns out to be something that I would not have expected a black metal band do to so well.

What I'm referring to is Deathspell Omega's use of classical Gregorian chant arrangements in their music here. Particularly in a drawn out section of the album's cornerstone 'Carnal Malefactor', the black metal dissipates, and instead we hear the gloomy vocals of a choir. Despite being very surprising on first listen, their arrangement here is beautiful and haunting, and most of all, it never feels forced. Even the most intense moments of Deathspell Omega's music here has an archaic, orthodox feel to it, so it seems natural for the band to go into something like that. 'Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice' is the only album of the band's that explores this aspect of their music, and I would have loved to hear more of it, because it shows so much promise.

Besides the vocals, the only other thing that doesn't sit so well with me is the album's length. At 71 minutes, it is definitely veering towards the long side of things, which is not a problem on its own, but for the usual madness and complexity that the album brings forth, it can make this length seem very unnecessary, especially on first listen. Barring that, 'Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice' is a monster of an album; I find it to be excellent now, and I can only see my reverence of it growing in the future. I believe that Deathspell would ascend to even greater heights on their next record, 'Fas- Ite Maledicti, In Ignem Aeturnum', but this is- of course- arguable. An excellent album from whom I consider to be the most inventive band black metal band we have ever yet seen.

Conor Fynes 'Infernal Battles' - Deathspell Omega (3/10)

The debut of this now legendary black metal act, Deathspell Omega has certainly come a long way from this. In more recent years, they have made some of the most haunting, challenging black metal ever made. Even on their second record 'Inquisitors Of Satan', Deathspell was playing an old school brand of black metal with some considerable proficiency. 'Infernal Battles' opens the band's career on a somewhat bleak note, and I do not mean that in a good way. Although nothing out of the ordinary for straightforward black metal, this is a very amateurish, poor sounding release, with inconsistent production, performance, and unremarkable songwriting. Although it certainly has its merits to it still, this is the only album in Deathspell Omega's catalog that I might label as 'bad'.

Musically speaking, 'Infernal Battles' is fairly average black metal, in the vein of bands like Mayhem. Of course, Deathspell Omega is coming a clean decade after those Norwegian heavyweights, so I cannot say much of the band in terms of innovation at this point. The music is filled with evil sounding chord progressions, tinny drums, and raspy vocals that sound garbled as hell, thanks to the low budget recording that the album has. Making the production worse is the fact that tracks 5-8 are actually the band's demo, 'Disciples Of The Ultimate Void'. Not a re-recording for the album, but an outright copy-and-paste of the demo onto here. The songwriting- which is very decent, although predictable- does not compensate for the total lack of tact the album has. Even at its best, 'Infernal Battles' still sounds like a garage production, but hearing it fluctuate so much makes for a pretty weak experience..

One positive thing I can mention about Deathspell Omega at this point is that even early on, they were very good musicians. This is an inherently untechnical sort of music that the band is playing, but they play it with a great intensity, and unlike many demos of this style that I have heard, there aren't slip-ups in the playing. Although this may be considered a full- length, it really does not feel as if Deathspell Omega's legitimate journey starts until the second album. This is generic, mediocre black metal with abysmal production values. Even so, it's a somewhat worthy venture for hardcore fans of the band, if only to see how much the band has progressed since their origin.

Conor Fynes 'Disciples Of The Ultimate Void' - Deathspell Omega (2/10)

I have no problem calling Deathspell Omega one of my favourite black metal bands ever, if not one of my favourites of any style. Over the course of the past decade, they have made some incredibly bone-chilling music, relying heavily on none other than Satan himself for lyrical inspiration. What has set this band apart though is their ability to really innovate their sound, and incorporate aspects of jaw-dropping technicality into a genre that generally lacks much in the way of playing proficiency. In any case, they have released some of my favourite albums, and though I respect them to the utmost, I cannot find much to appreciate in their early demo, entitled 'Disciples Of The Ultimate Void'. First hearing it tacked onto their debut album 'Infernal Battles', this is a poorly produced, generic black metal demo that sadly does not impress me in any way, let alone to the extent that their opuses do.

There really is not much to say about the demo, save for the fact that it shows these Frenchmen paying homage to bands like Mayhem, who perfected this old school style of black metal about a decade prior. The songwriting is bland and predictable, although the musicianship of the band is quite impressive, even at this point. It is clear that this band is a cut above others in the sense that this band can really play their instruments well. Sadly, they are using their talents to pull off music that has been done much better before. Even after a few listens, nothing sticks on the demo. There are some nicely played riffs, but even they are made senseless by the sewage-calibre production that would typically be entailed with a demo. There is little to enjoy here, and it would be until the band's second album where they would start making some good black metal.