### De Lirium's Order: Veniversum

#### 04/06/12 || Sokaris

I imagine De Lirium’s Order isn’t a familiar name to a lot of readers but hopefully that’s about to change since they’ve recently released “Veniversum”, an eight track foray into the slightly progressive and the occasionally uber-technical. Throughout it all though the band never forgets to keep the riffs at the forefront and the headbangability of this music is never thrown into question.

Their more complex moments are really mindblowing, something that should be held aloft and shown as a beacon to the misguided arpeggio-abusers that handle the six string duties in too many modern death metal bands. The band’s advanced technical methods are applied to songwriting, creating intricate passages and fascinating counterpoint rather than simply showing off. Honestly my only complaint is that they don’t focus on these characteristics more. There’s a little bit of “Left hand path” syndrome in effect here, as the first track tends to hugely overshadow the rest of the album. “Autistic savant” is a song that demands many listens to unravel its inner workings. It uses motifs that subtly change in different parts of the songs, taking some ideas from symphonic composition (and leaving neoclassical pretension aside).

DLO is a tough band to describe, there’s just something unique about the way they play. Their older material was more straightforward but even so had a ton of character and memorable riffs. They just put their own stamp on everything they do with a really natural sounding approach. They weren’t overly modern, definitely not retro, they just had their own little niche of hugely underrated death metal. Hopefully that niche is growing as “Veniversum” should appeal to a wide range of listeners. It’s experimental enough to stay innovating (small inclusions of fretless bass, atmospheric keys and clean vocal sections) without straying too far from the business at hand: compelling death metal.

I’ve not heard sophomore album “Diagnosis” so I don’t know how big a leap forward this is for the band, but compared to the debut “Victim no. 52” De Lirium’s Order has really come a long way. They’ve still maintained most of the characteristic riffing tendencies and defining elements but they’ve really pushed certain elements into interesting new areas. A very refreshing listen after a handful of tech-death disappointments earlier this year.

- Information
- Released: 2012
- Label: DLO Productions
- Website: www.deliriumsorder.net
- Band
- Kari Olli: vocals
- Mika Sundvall: guitars
- S.M. NekroC: guitars
- Erkki Silvennoinen: bass
- Ukri “Uge” Suvilehto: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Autistic savant
- 02. .44
- 03. Maximum Sentence
- 04. Seppuku
- 05. The gravity of crime
- 06. Schizophrenic
- 07. My kingdom from baekdu
- 08. The aftermath