Deathspell Omega
Veritas Diaboli Manet in Aeternum: Chaining the Katechon

THE REVIEW

There is no need to make it a mystery: the French Deathspell Omega have become one of the most important black metal realities of recent years. So much so that the very term "black metal" has started to feel inadequate for them since the release of that giant called "Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice" (2004): people talk about avant-garde, post-black and/or religious black, they talk too much and fill their mouths with meaningless labels. I rather believe that Mikko Aspa and his associates don't give a damn about how their work is categorized, which instead should be taken as a unique and isolated corpus of works indissolubly linked under the conceptual aspect (themes of a religious, philosophical nature, et cetera) and, of course, musical (the particular sonic evolution still ongoing); in short, they are a voice outside the choir, a precious and unrepeatable parenthesis within a genre that now more than ever needs to rejuvenate and free itself from sterile paradigms and its own intransigence.

The fact that each DsO release post-(but also pre-) "Monumentum" should be considered as part of a single design is also demonstrated by a certain impossibility to fully describe any work outside the overall musical path, a bit like trying to deduce the entire image of a puzzle from a single piece, which wouldn’t even be a big problem if the intent was only to descriptively and purely "accessorily" describe what is being listened to. But those who know Deathspell well know just as well that "the whole is more than the sum of its parts" and, therefore, that each new album only makes the design that this mysterious entity has in store for its followers clearer and more logical.

Thus, even a split or an EP cannot be less crucial than a true album; on the other hand, episodes like "Kénôse", "From The Entrails To The Dirt", and "Crushing The Holy Trinity (Father)" contain material so dense and meaningful that considering them secondary would be inappropriate, to say the least: it is indeed with these small great chapters that the DsO allow themselves greater expressive freedom, offering the most interesting nuances of their career, and the most recent EP reviewed here, "Veritas Diaboli Manet In Aeternum: Chaining The Katechon" (2008), part of a split with their compatriots and unknown S.V.E.S.T., certainly makes no exception.

After that devastating masterpiece named "Fas – Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum" (2007), the second chapter of the trilogy, everything seemed possible: twisted, dissonant, difficult, enigmatic, chaotic and elusive, mad and unpredictable (the adjectives are endless), it was an album that demolished every certainty and left a thousand questions echoing at the end of each listen; the upcoming "Paracletus", set to be released this year, will have to continue and conclude the concept of the trilogy. In any case, "Veritas Diaboli..." positions itself as an intermezzo chapter and delivers us a single track of over 20 minutes, a duration that DsO have managed excellently on multiple occasions.

"Chaining The Katechon" mixes the cards a bit and, rather than taking on the arduous task of continuing the discourse of "Fas", throws everything Deathspell have done so far into the pot. However, one thing is certain: "Chaining The Katechon", despite its considerable size, is still a track endowed with a certain fundamental organicity, with many verses and "themes" revisited multiple times; this is enough to distance it quite a bit from the disorienting nonsense of "Fas" and make it take two steps back in this regard. But at the same time, it still takes a significant step forward by synthesizing the Omega universe into a single sum.

Thus, we find traces of the frenzied hallucination of "Fas", from which it reworks, heavily trimming down, the inextricable tangle of riffs; there is a bit of "Kénôse", due to the vortex-like and ultra-technical progression, as well as the choice of sounds in itself; and of course, the sacred and serpentine aura of "Monumentum" cannot be missing, something that in "Fas" seemed to have been definitively shelved in favor of pure, simple schizophrenia. In short, an absurd mess in which, in just 22 minutes of atrocious ecstasy and spasmodic psalmody, Deathspell Omega change form once again while keeping spirit and substance intact.

22 minutes seem a lot for a single track, but "Chaining The Katechon", moving like a crazed seismograph, doesn't grant us any empty moments or flattening: between sudden surges and dissonant tails, passing through bubbling crescendos and splashes of venom from Aspa, the band creates the most demanding and well-crafted track of their career; a magnificent apocalyptic tableau framed by lyrics so delirious and visionary that, needless to say, they will delight those who are used to blasting Deathspell’s sermons during their listening sessions to further mortify their sanity.
Boredom and predictability have no home in this EP which, while remaining a record of limited scope, seeks to best tidy up Omega's sound after the total deconstruction that took place with "Fas": "Chaining The Katechon" doesn't dare but merely prepares the group to (hopefully) evolve again.

Now, we just have to give the floor to "Paracletus".