Demilich
20th Adversary of Emptiness

The Demilich are disorienting. There's nothing to be done, it's in their nature. They disoriented twenty-one years ago with a crazy, intricate, sublime album, and they still manage to disorient. Where you'd expect to read "anniversary," here's "adversary": the twentieth adversary of emptiness. It's just the title of a compilation, even with definitive ambitions, but it already alludes to the realm of the esoteric, the philosophical, the abstract in which these Finnish madmen can lead you by the hand.

This is a compilation that practically contains everything. The attempt, made by Svart Records at the beginning of the year, to summarize a cult-band in barely two hours of music (but it couldn't be otherwise) and 40 pages of booklet: a small treasure rich in information and curiosities, which includes, in addition to the lyrics of the songs, an interview with the legendary singer-guitarist Antti Boman. A Pandora's box worthy of a true demilich, sealed by an excellent artwork by Turkka Rantanen, which in its own way preludes through synthesis to what will overwhelm the unsuspecting listener: an alien, multiform, jagged entity, perhaps malignant, that draws nourishment from remote gore origins.

On the first of the two discs, which coincides with their only full-length, the epochal "Nespithe" from '93, I don't intend to dwell too much, also out of respect for the valid review on the subject written by the good PascalJ; however, a few words, if only for emotional reasons, I must say. Without beating around the bush, we are dealing with a masterpiece of the European underground (and perhaps not only...): an exceptional technical death re-elaborated in a Finnish key, which amazes and delights from the first to the last track. The songs are almost ineffable, indomitable chimeras, that twist amongst an infinity of flashes of genius and time changes: extreme metal mixed with suggestions of a drugged jazz. Mikko Virnes's performance on drums is prodigious, constantly able to infuse new life into the veins of this creature and keep the spirit alert and attentive; Aki Hytönen and Ville Koistinen (guitarist and bassist) throw out riffs from another planet, crazy flourishes to drive you mad and tear your hair out; and above all this is Boman's voice, if "voice" it can be called... oh my... an alpha-swine growl, icy, ruthless, deep: the most controversial element, which will make you vomit or love this group to the fullest. Each track possesses a richness that is hard to believe can be concentrated in a few minutes; and in that richness, there are precious gems, like the explosive finale of "The Putrefying Road In The 19th Extremity" or an "Erecshyrinol" (note the titles) in which the excellent Antti uses his regurgitations as punctuation. With a production, moreover, that has never reached these levels. In short, a record to listen without hesitation for heavy music lovers: to blast in Domodossola, perhaps, so that they hear it even 40 kilometers away, while they are bashing terrible headbutts against the walls...

The second disc contains the rest, and the rest is divided into two units. At the beginning, we find three songs recorded in 2006 (the "Vanishing Sessions": the void is closing in!), one of which ("The Faces Right Below The Skin Of The Earth") is unreleased: we're on territory close to "Nespithe," but in my opinion, these tracks, although excellent, lack the taste of the past, appearing a bit too pumped. The continuation represents the beginnings, the gestation process that led to the masterpiece: and it depicts them in reverse order, for better understanding and to avoid too abrupt breaks. The two 1992 demos present songs that later, with some obvious modifications, would be fully included in "Nespithe": compared to the more recent, "The Echo," some macabre and disgusting samples, indicating a certain lingering interest in gore, have been removed, and from "...Somewhere Inside The Bowels Of Endlessness..." some symphonic intros that would have clashed in the final work have been omitted. The 1991 trials then clearly highlight our Finnish origins: an unhealthy Death metal influenced by Doom and still tied to purulent themes, underscored by a growl, if possible, even more devastating. Suffice it to say the first cry of the Demilich, the demo "Regurgitation Of Blood": a single track, "The Uncontrollable Regret Of The Rotting Flesh," which seems recorded directly in your cellar. True rot, highlighting how this musical evolution, which occurred within two years, is quite shocking.

Prelude to yet another post-breakup reunion (Demilich will play a series of dates in 2015), "20th Adversary Of Emptiness" is a real gem which cannot but remind me of "Grind Finale" by my beloved Nasum. However, if in that case the journey was linear, here we start in medias res, then lean forward and finally, like in a harmonic motion, get catapulted backward. What to say? Disorienting.