First time I listened to Rotting Christ was 10 years ago, in college. I remember that albums like "Triarchy of the Lost Lovers", "A Dead Poem", "Sleep of the Angels", "Khronos" and "Genesis" made me love their style, their melodic black/gothic riffs and choirs. But somehow, after six interesting albums that marked my tastes in music followed three cds that, for some reason, didn't capture my attention at all. Rather liniar, repetitive and dull, "Sanctus Diavolos" and especially "Theogonia" and "Aealo" made my think that RC started following a road that will never catch my attention like they used to....and then "Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού" came. It captures the very essence of RC from their best albums and somehow goes a little further with crushing riffs and a good sound quality (a thing that older albums of Rotting Christ didn't have, making the guitars not so dynamic). I considered writing some track names that I consider to be the best on this album, but I can't make up my mind: all of the tracks are different in styles and each and every one of them has something interesting in them; all hails to Rotting Christ!

King Crimson goes Sci-fi Thrash Metal

I think this is the appropriate description for this album since the songs are a bit more leaned towards construction than on the rest of their earlier albums. Usually when a band starts to create more construction-based songs, they loose a bit from their dynamic...not the case with Voivod! Similar to King Crimson's "Islands" (especially with the astonishing resemblance between 'Sailor's Tale'/'Jack Luminous'), "The Outer Limits" flawlessly combine Voivod's dynamic thrash metal characteristics with precision, accuracy and their already-known catchy riffs.

PS: I would also compare this album's release to Amon Duul II's "Tanz der Leminge".

“Paracletus” – the last of the grand three...and what a great job these guys did by maintaining the standards set by “Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice” and “Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum”. If the first album from this trilogy came as a complete surprise, the success of “Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum” (2007) and “Paracletus” (2010) in completing this majestic three-piece work of art was somehow expected by the release made in 2005 (the absolutely phenomenal “Kénôse”) and in 2008 (with the excellent duo “Veritas Diaboli Manet in Aeternum: Chaining the Katechon” – “Mass Grave Aesthetics”). So, after two ground-breaking albums and three exceptional EPs, “Paracletus” came as a natural continuation of their unique style that has influenced and changed the Black Metal scene.

Unlike the previous two albums, “Paracletus” starts off with straightforward riffing and playful cymbals; no choral intros, no atmospheric constructions, just sheer brutality. ‘Epiklesis’ I and II both contain verses in English, Latin and in the newly-added French (I was wondering when will they write in their own language). While the album delivers a more standard Black Metal style (starting from ‘Wings of Predation’ and ‘Abscission’), the dissonant guitars are omnipresent, side-by-side with the chaotic bass and drums that build-up great structures in the evolution of ‘Dearth’, ‘Phosphene’, ‘Malconfort’, ‘Have You Beheld the Fevers?’. And so we stand before ‘Devouring Famine’ and ‘Apokatastasis Pantôn’ – you will get crushed by the incredible polyrhythmic fast-drumming. Everything speeds-up at the end, the feelings get more intense than ever while the haunting guitars just tear you apart; all that has been constructed, created with great skill will crumble upon you from immense heights to intense burning depths.

“You were seeking strength, justice, splendour! You were seeking love!

Here is the pit, here is your pit! Its name is SILENCE…”

...and this fabulous trilogy comes to an end. The value of Deathspell Omega’s work is unquestionable when it comes to atmosphere, ideology, verse-writing, technique, construction and destruction.

This review is written by someone who considers Deathspell Omega to be one of the most important Black Metal bands nowadays and one of the most important in the history of the genre...and this is why:

"Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice" – comparison with other Metal albums

"Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice" is the beginning of one of the most important trilogies in modern-day Metal...and I say Metal 'cause the album at hand is more than Black. It incorporates Progressive and Technical elements, the listener having to deal with the absolutely monumental waves of music complexity, frenetic dissonance and polyrhythmic song structures that redefined Deathspell Omega as Avant-garde Black. I would dare to compare the importance of this album with Mayhem's "Chimera", Burzum's "Filosofem", Darkthrone's "Panzerfaust", Enslaved's "Mardraum" or even Negură Bunget's "Măiastru Sfetnic".

"Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice" – comparison with other Deathspell Omega albums

Released in 2004, it has a totally different sound than the Darkthrone-like "Infernal Battles" and "Inquisitors of Satan", setting the standards for what it was to come: the majestic "Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum" and the crushing "Paracletus", with "Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum" being the pinnacle of this collection. Although not the best from the three, "Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice" was the beginning of change in contemporary Black Metal, an infusion of inspiration and new elements that the BM scene needed so bad.

“A masterpiece of Avant-garde Black and one of the greatest releases in extreme music” – I think these are the words that best describe this absolutely astonishing creation.

The album is framed by the songs ‘Obombration’, grandiose pieces of ravishing beauty which give the album a circle-like representation of the Infinite. Unlike the rest of the album’s lyrics written in English, the two Obombrations have Latin and Greek words that are used to create the best intro and outro for this album:

“Hagios ho Theos, Sanctus Deus / Hagios Ischyros, Sanctus Fortis

Deus, judica me... / ut quid, Domine, recessisti longe?

Judica me... perinde ac cadaver”

“Deus, judica me / ... et factus est sudor eius sicut guttae sanguinis decurrentis in terram.

Domine, in pulverem mortis deduxisti me / perinde ac cadaver.”

(Translation)

“God, judge me / ...and his sweat was made as drops of blood running down to earth.

Lord, into the dust of death you guided me / just as a cadaver.”

Having in mind the style created on the preceding album "Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice", we venture ourselves into the depths of this abyssal creation to firstly find ‘The Shrine of Mad Laughter’ whose instrumentation is just pure technical madness unleashed before ‘Bread of Bitterness’ and ‘The Repellent Scars of Abandon and Election’, songs filled with brilliantly-created dissonance, crushing drumming and catchy guitar riffs and tremolos that continue towards ‘A Chore for the Lost’ with mind-numbing complexity. The atmosphere created during this 46mins trip is the result of flawless album construction, the brain-child of these unknown geniuses.