Time Signature Passage...

Genre: black metal

I am very much aware that this is acquired taste - like wine and coffee, this is something you have to learn to appreciate. As it happens, I have not acquired a taste for wine or coffee, and I have not yet required a taste for Hæresiarchs of Dis' brand of black metal.

The music on this album is a blend of noisy black metal with fast drumming, dissonant and chaotic guitars accompanied by screaming vocals and dark, but sometimes soft, soundscapes. This may sound interesting, and it is interesting to listen to, but it is that kind of music that you have to be en a certain mood to listen to, and it is that kind of music that you listen to for other reasons than mere pleasure.

A very atmospheric affair, the production is fuzzy - but not really bad or lo-tech - and reverb-ladden. The noisy aspect of the music on this album is not achieved through lo-tech production, like it was with much early black metal, but through the composition and performance of the music itself, which is rich in dissonant chords and atonal harmonies as well as a frantic and seemingly chaotic constant change of chords (and non-chords, I am sure). The drums - be they programmed or manually played - have a very well-defined sound and add a sense of order to the chaotic texture of the black metal tracks.

So this chaotic and noisy nature of the music itself, combined with a reverby production and all the soundscapes that pop up make listening to this album a very abstract experience (which make the more tangible parts that pop up now and then seem very salient).

And this is music for connoisseurs. Noobs who are interested in black metal should not attempt to use this abstract piece of art of an album as a first entry into the genre, but if you are an experienced black metal listener with interest in a dark and twisted journey through a chaotic, tense and abstract universe of sound, then I am sure you will gain a lot from listening to this album.

Vehemency On paper, Hæresiarchs of Dis and his third full-length opus In the Obsecration of the Seven Darks sound pretty enticing: furious, chaotic black metal with occasional tendencies towards haunting ambient soundscapes. The outcome, then, is not exactly that marvellous due to some critical glitches in the musical coherency of this 51-minute beast.

Atmospherically, In the Obsecration of the Seven Darks is rather well done: listening to the album is quite a damn trip through audial insanity where discordant and seemingly constantly changing guitar chords lead the way, backed up by a plethora of fast drum beats and a heavy dose of synths in the background. The only problem sound-wise resides in the drums that are either triggered too heavily or programmed too harassingly (with all the new technology I’m not sure which one it is), resulting in an overpowered snare sound which is a big minus on an album that relies so heavily on overall atmosphere.

...because compositionally, these nine tracks have little to offer, unfortunately. The balance between metal and (chaotic) ambient is pretty much 50-50, but neither of the band’s styles truly capture any fantastic ideas. At times, the melodies and riffs seem like they were improvised on the go, and with not that mind-blowing results. "Ensorcelled by Khaos" - originally an Emperor track - is a surprising choice of cover, but I do see a little resemblance between the bands, especially in Cernunnos’ high-pitched vocals.

In the Obsecration of the Seven Darks is, in the end, an album that does not tire me, but neither does it trigger any proper emotions in me. It’s a shame to give a rather negative rating to an effort that is, for the most part, thoughtfully done and rich in textures, but it isn’t simply enough. With a few main problems fixed, this could turn into a much more enjoyable ride. Perhaps with his next album, then.