Orthodox
Gran Poder

Slow officiants of the primordial Christian era. Dark witnesses of the ancient time when what would become the fiercely affirmed religion of all Europe was forced to coexist with the remnants of pagan religion that permeated the popular culture of the time.

The music of Orthodox carries with it the sin that annihilated consciences, the guilt that became an unyielding weapon of control and slavery. Crushed by remorse, the pagan man surrendered to the new religion. The Great Power. The sonic agony of the Spanish trio seems conceived to accompany processions of self-punishment in the name of an impossible atonement for a sin inseparable and insurmountable from the human dimension.

Doom tears into the blackest and most obsessive drone to mark the slow and inexorable march of the flagellants. A dry and frantic drum sets the rhythm for the flogging. Then an explosion, and madness seizes the procession. Uncontrolled and acid noise, but it is only a moment, and the ranks regroup. Once again, the drum beats, now solemn and mighty, remind us there is no escape. One cannot flee because it is impossible to leave one's painful mortal nature. One cannot reject the guilt, because we are the guilt. The orderly ranks of believers cannot be broken because the mark of sin infects our veins, runs through our blood. All that remains is to continue the march, crushed by the laconic warning of a litany as distant as it is ruthless.

With the cross raised, all that remains is to contemplate the Great Power.