DE MAGIA VETERUM — Migdal Bavel (review)

DE MAGIA VETERUM — Migdal Bavel album cover Album · 2009 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
bartosso
All hail Transcendental Creations!

I may be wrong, but the long and passionate journey to the absolute chaos that De Magia Veterum set out on, seems to have started here, in Migdal Bavel. While still black metal at its core, it's his first album to be so concept-driven and consistent in its exploration of black metal-based polyphony. I'd even venture to say, that multiple references to both Ophiuchus/Cloak of Altering and the notorious colossus of noisiness and ambient horror, Gnaw Their Tongues, are to be found here.

To those who are not familiar with the aforementioned output of Maurice de Jong, the mastermind behind countless experimental projects and obscure musical ventures, I hasten to explain what we are dealing with here. Migdal Bavel is an experimental black metal album that would probably ring a bell in Blut Aus Nord, Deathspell Omega and Dødheimsgard fans' heads. Much noisier and vicious than any of the above, it is a much tougher listen, though. If you're not careful, if you approach the record with your guard down, it is going to trample your ears with a whirlwind of noisy, insane riffing, polyphonic tonal/atonal passages and seemingly random tempo changes, all that wrapped in some diabolically raw production that will make you despise all of what you've just heard... If you approach it with an open mind and actually give it a chance, though, you'll experience one of the most adventurous and soul-stirring black metal albums out there.

Brilliant and overlooked gem from the vast collection of overlooked gems - that's a way to sum things up with Mories. To those who know him, Mories is one of the greatest underground composers and one of the most prolific experimental metal/ambient creators out there. Migdal Bavel certainly is a great introduction to his twisted mind - it will prepare you for what's to come if you delve deeper.
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