Katatonia guitarist Blackheim certainly didn't look too far for lyrical content on his first solo Diabolical Masquerade album. Namechecking himself in five songs and perhaps giving nod to Judas Priest's "The Sentinel" on a couple others, the self-oriented nature of the titles is not representative of a masturbatory solo outfit. Instead, Blackheim charges out of the gate with some riff oriented, black-baked metal that pushes the intensity knob up a bit. Blackheim's incredible ability to write razor sharp guitar riffs is obviously the main reason one should investigate the Masquerade. Playing ragingly fast with subtle keyboard underscores over a blitz of drums, the nine tracks blaze by but do remain coherent and gripping. Vocally he is standard black metal screaming. Essentially Diabolical Masquerade is simply a very solid side project of a very talented individual and worth digging up.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 06/1999

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Some people just have too much creativity and time on their hands. As with Dan Swanö, Katatonia's Blackheim seems to be blessed with an endless wealth of inspiration to work from and nearly as many side projects. Diabolical Masquerade represents his solo venture, as opposed to his main job in Katatonia or his previous association with retrodorks Bewitched. D.M. is not too far removed from Katatonia (what would expect?) but does stand apart due to its more experimental nature. Blackheim's attention wanders about through this record, exploring territories not too dissimilar to Opeth and oftentimes taking the spirit of Celtic Frost into rebirth in the 90's. Blackheim mixes a variety of vocal styles from harsh black metal screams, to Tom G. Warrior-esque grunting and everywhere in between. There is a wide usage of keyboard atmospherics and other instrumentation (such as the folk flute in "Ravenclaw"). At the same time, he is able to create sonically sound black metal treats, such as the vicious "The Walk of the Hunchbacked" or the smooth "Cloaked by Moonshine Mist". Of course, I have to credit "Upon the Salty Wall of the Broody Gargoyle" for sounding more like Tom G. Warrior than Tom himself. The Phantom Lodge is a grab bag of moods, approaches and ideas which seldom lags or gets boring. Any fan of Katatonia is required to find this and anyone who appreciates well written black/death metal is also encouraged to visit this lodge.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 04/1999

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Though I've enjoyed the first two Diabolical Masquerade parties, a dozen listens to Nightwork haven't been quite as rewarding. Blackheim is apparently aiming for a horror theme on the album, complete with inbetween song spoken word segments from real demons ("Out of my way, wretched human!") and real live guest musicians. A lot of attention has been given to a certain person playing drums, almost overtly so since the focus should be on Blackheim and his compositions, not who is behind the drum kit. The main flaw to this album is that it twists, turns and rides a spooky little black metal roller coaster but never really gives the listener a sense of progression. Each time I've listened to the album I've found myself snoozing or not paying attention at all midway through. Occasional bit parts are interesting, such as the flute section in "Thiz Ghoultimate Omen" or some of the riffs that peek out. Unfortunately on the whole it is nothing more than a very plain and very average album from a guitarist who normally just oozes creativity. Stick with the first two Diabolical Masquerade albums and only pick this up if you just absolutely have the dollars to burn.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 08/1999

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According to the "official" word, Death's Design is an actual soundtrack to a movie that was scrapped by its producers. Since this music was already composed, Diabolical Masquerade saw fit to release it as their fourth record. Insofar as the record stands in the scheme of the outfit's recording history, Death's Design is a marked step up from their previous release, Nightwork, and sees the band acknowledging Dan Swano as a fulltime contributor rather than just a session musician and of course, producer. And as we all know, Diabolical Masquerade is essentially Blackheim from Katatonia doing his black metal tinged side project.

Succeeding where Nightwork failed, Death's Design is a remarkably cohesive, visually provocative and ambitious album that is split into twenty "movements" and sixty-one individual tracks within those movements. Considering the cinematic inspiration of the music, the wide array of approaches used throughout benefits the album immensely. Swano's keyboard and synthesized effects provide a great deal of depth to the sound, while the music generally uses a slight black metal influence, but mostly a more traditional metal approach. However, elements such as jazz guitar leads, symphonic underscores and a string section help move this into its own realm of very far reaching music. The vocals, when used, are mostly rasped in black metal fashion while there are segments of clean singing. Considering there are so many tracks in such a short time, many of the subsections in each movement blitz by the listener in under a minute, but they retain a common thread between each other, creating a very smooth flow throughout. The production is absolutely stellar, very smartly capturing everything and not letting the various instruments clash in competition.

Death's Design, regardless of whether the film it is associated with exists or is a ruse for this album's lore, is by far the best Diabolical Masquerade release yet. Perhaps the further usage of Dan Swano's input has helped, but this is truly a soundtrack to a terrifying inner world. Highly recommended towards anyone into a theatrical form of extreme metal.

Review by John Chedsey

Review date: 06/2001

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