Deathspell Omega has been quietly plying away at their craft for years, but it wasn’t until their third full-length, 2004’s Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice that they became a truly formidable force within the black metal scene. Whereas most black metal is focused on all things sanctimonious in a forced and contrived manner, Deathspell Omega, on each subsequent album, has been able to push boundaries in such a way as to make their music sound genuinely terrifying. Even their lyrics, free of “hail satan” affectations, read as if they are really cryptic theological theses. These lyrics, combined with the savage and serpentine music, make to create a genuinely unique sound. 2005’s stop-gap EP Kenose (along with a string of split EPs) furthered this idea, sometimes veering more into Voivod-like dissonance and progressive atonality. Now, on their newest album, considered the “sequel” to a trilogy started with Si Monumentum, Deathspell Omega has combined the violence of Si Monumentum with the progressive elements of Kenose along with a strong death metal lean (think Immolation at their best), and in so doing created one of the most dense and truly scary albums this side of Strapping Young Lad. In a few words, sheer, hellish chaos.

Of course, this would all be for naught if the music itself did not completely kick ass, which it does, in spades. The sheer scope of the music is a lot to take in, as one is beaten repeatedly over the head with razor-sharp guitar riffs, raging blast-beats, samples of monks chanting, and Mikko Aspa’s impressive rasps. When the band does slow things down, it is usually to a serpentine crawl featuring guitar arpeggios that go out of their way to avoid melody wherever possible, or to ambient choral/piano passages that act like a portent of further dread and chaos. Hasjarl has seen to fit to add some very impressive lead guitar work to the proceedings (the tasteful soloing that signals the last two minutes of “The Repellent Scars of Abandon and Election” and the layered solos at the end of “A Chore for the Lost” are particularly effective). In fact, on a whole, Hasjarl has revealed himself to be quite the guitar wizard, seamlessly jumping from Daniel Ash-like post-punk fury to black metal malevolence to sweeping arpeggios and back again. The drumming, executed by somebody who has been hitherto unrevealed by the band, is almost ridiculous to behold.

Once the density and suffocating nature of the album is left to sink in, Fas – Ite, Maledicti, in Ignum Aeturnum, is a pretty damned impressive black metal album, and one that will probably to continue to reveal more of itself for a long time after. Highly recommended to only the most adventurous of listeners.

Review by Alec A. Head

Review date: 10/2007

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