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1997. It had been 6 years since the release of the masterpiece "Heavy Demons", a true pride of the entire Metal scene of the peninsula. During these 6 years, our vampire Steve Sylvester certainly hadn't been idle, releasing the legendary live album "The Cursed Concert" in 1992, the solo album "Free Man" in 1994, and recruiting the first official keyboardist of Death SS, Freddy Delirio, in 1995.
It was more than clear that something was cooking: the presence of a stable keyboardist and further lineup changes (alongside drummer Ross Lukather, a carryover from the previous lineup, were guitarists Emil Bandera and Felix Moon, bassist Andrew Karloff, and keyboardist Oleg Smirnoff, already a member of Vision Divine) surely heralded a stylistic shift, but nothing would ever have hinted at the release of an album the caliber of "Do What Thou Wilt".
With this release, Death SS introduced a completely renewed sound and style, heavier and more gothic, fearlessly experimenting with new solutions, giving ample room to the keyboard, introducing female choirs, and diverging from the traditional Heavy-Power Metal rhythms that had characterized them until then: in this sense, the flexibility of the powerful drummer Ross Lukather is once again admirable, as he easily adapts his style to this "new course". The shift is also palpable in the lyrics, which no longer talk about the undead, horrors beyond the grave, and unspeakable rites, but express esoteric concepts and doctrines through a hermetic, initiatory language.
A very experimental album, as we said, right from the unusual intro "The Awakening Of The Beast" recited by an electronically distorted voice, launching a triple shot of textbook tracks, absolutely the most successful on the album, where the potential of the keyboard is fully revealed, loading the tracks with a menacing atmosphere of witching night: the devastating and very fast "The Phoenix Mass", the heavy "Baron Samedi", with its tribal rhythms, and the unforgettable, magnificent "Scarlet Woman", perhaps the best track of the bunch. "Serpent Rainbow", an atmospheric ballad with a mystical flavor, slows down the pace before throwing us headlong into the almost title track: "Crowley's Law", that Thelemic law of Aleister Crowley immortalized by the album title: "Do What Thou Wilt", a "do what you will" that expresses an almost Luciferian concept of freedom that breaks the most useless and hypocritical rules and conventions, stopping only before damaging others' freedom; the song is a violent Thrash-Nu Metal enriched by electronic inserts that herald stylistic developments still distant (who said "Humanomalies"?). "Guardian Angel", heavier and more driven, "Shrine In The Gloom", slower and more atmospheric, the dark and mephitic "The Way Of The Left Hand", and the concluding, infernal "Liber Samekh" are four other excellent tracks, enhanced by the work of an inspired Oleg Smirnoff, who is able to create nightmarish and disturbing atmospheres with his keyboard.
A fully successful experimentation, then, this "Do What Thou Wilt" for our Kings of Evil, a stylistic shift that does not disappoint at all, a change that would over time lead Death SS to more than deserved international fame, an evolution that spared the national Steve from accusations of stagnation and pushed the group almost to the vanguard, the album of an artistic rebirth that does not fall into the ridiculous or the already heard, and that opened a new era in the house of Death SS.
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By dominus_sathanas
An album that has marked the history of the Tuscan group and the entire Italian metal scene.
In my opinion, the best album by Death SS in recent times, or rather... perhaps even the only truly well-made album.
