Global Domination | Reviews | Deathspell Omega: Kénôse

Recent updates

Recent discussions

Reviews

Deathspell Omega: Kénôse

21/10/09 || The Duff

Behind the scenes at GD ain’t no Mötley Crüe reunion tour, despite what you may think going by our slightly unpleasant outlook on those who don’t deliver; it’s pretty much cocaine, prostitutes and sunshine and room for no one but the kind-hearted, “pass-it-around when I’m done with” type folk.

That said, we all do our own thing (unless it’s a circle-jerk over staffer Inquisitor Generalis), kinda accustomed to how things flow; speaking personally, we all seem familiar with each other’s respective styles. That’s when it’s a rare occasion that a fellow staffer hits the nail on the head and the review speaks to me; theProphet first turned me onto this remarkably gifted band with his review of “Fas”, and after subsequently reading his other review of the band, I came across this beautiful little sentence: “This album fills me with such reverence that I won’t even try to be funny in this review, there is nothing funny about “Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice”, not in the least”. Replace the album title with Deathspell Omega and we’re at “FUCK YES! If we were to meet, I would caress you in a warm, brotherly embrace” – Deathspell Omega is a twisting, violent mass of fury and morbid visions, probably the most talented black metal band in existence.

This here is an E.P. released between the aforementioned two discs, and I know you’re thinking “Aawwww, an E.P.? I stopped fucking my Fleshlight to a picture of the Olson twins for this??!“, but when it comes to Deathspell, the E.P.s are not only like full albums such is their sense of completeness and continuity, but parallel to the full lengths in greatness – seriously, their latest, Chaining the Katechon, is battling with first place for my top five of the year list, and 2009 has been one of the best years in metal for a long time. Three tracks, all pretty lengthy, sprawling and foreboding connections to the darkest part of your soul (the part that says “I’d like to try a little bit of anal tonight, honey…”, all arched eyebrows and ankles behind the ears, “Then I want you to force-feed me my own cock, no safe-words apply”).

If you’ve never heard DsO before, I’m not trying to tell you they’ve completely reinvented the sub-genre, but they’re really taking it to some outstandingly creative and interesting new heights. Dark, dissonant layers of swirling, hypnotic energy that will drown you in loathsomeness. On top of it, the riff at 5:15 of “II” is one of my all-time favourites; the way it comes in, the sway it develops into and the madness it becomes as a result of manic blasting, you don’t find such moving moments in metal often – to think this measures up to tech death riffing in terms of impact is practically unthinkable to me from a BM standpoint, but there you have it.

As to whether you should own this, I would recommend it to all – I’ve heard that this album broke many (GD forumers included) into the band, and I would definitely say try this over “Fas”, as some think they became too experimental with said album; a perfect introduction that I have no problem siding with over their masterpiece “Si Monumentum” when the time is right for a lesser dose of hatred, and definitely one for the already converted, this band has released a perfectly paced, brief-ish EP for the times you want to suck but not swallow provided the missus hasn’t pulled your ankles back so hard that your spine has been spit out through your anus.

Information
Released: 2005
Label: Southern Lord
Website: Official MySpace
Band
Nobody really fucking knows anything, but they have a MySpace.

Tracklist
01. I
02. II
03. III

Reviews