Paracletus

Upon completion of your first full listen of the album don't expect to be anything other than fatigued. The mental exhaustion i speak of however is far from a bad thing, nor will it stop you from wanting to immediately give the album another spin. And then another one. And another one. No. This mental fatigue comes from the albums ability to shred all of your preconceptions of what dark music and black metal is capable of, and it's really infectious. On "Paracletus" Deathspell Omega have manged to find the perfect balance between absolute twisted musical insanity and well crafted, beautifully dark melodies, which are presented through densely layered guitar work that literally leave you wondering how they came up with such genius ideas. This album is not only masterfully composed, but it's heavily progressive, and challenges some of the most atmospheric metal albums i've ever heard for the top spot.

From the opening dissonant guitar riff of "Epiklesis" all the way to the very last minute of the almost doomy and desperate melodies of "Apokatastasis Panton" this album never lets up. The songs transition into one another so flawlessly that if one were not looking at the tracks changing you'd never know it was a new song. This gives the album a very dense and epic feel to it, and although it's 42 minutes long the album is so good and commands so much attention that you'll never stop to think about the minutes going by. The only sign you'll find that time has passed when you are through with it will be the ringing remaining in your ears, as you will have had the irresistible urge to turn the volume up to immerse yourself more fully in the wall of sound that they create.

"Paracletus" is an album drenched with technical mastery, compositional precision filled with as many haunting melodies as there are terrifying dissonances, bass work that stands out as perfection in and of itself, impeccable time signature changes, stunning production, and vocal work that really tops off the smothering atmosphere that this monster of an album creates. What you won't find in this album is instant gratification. It's true that even just one listen of the album will prove that it is a force to be reckoned with, however, i've listened to it many times through now and it's still slowly coming together and revealing itself to me gradually. But every music lover knows that those are the albums that are the most gratifying in the end, and are the ones that will stick with you most over time.

If you like progressive black metal, if you like metal at all period and are up for the challenge, do yourself a huge favor; turn off the lights and give this a good listen. And then try to go to sleep. Now THERE'S a challenge.

10 years ago French blackmetal band Deathspell Omega was just another dime as dozen Darkthrone clone trying to make it in the dog eat dog world of trve blackmetal. Then something happened; disgruntled by the stagnating state of Blackmetal, Deathspell decided to take matters into their own hands and pave a new path. Starting with the release of Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice, and following with a handful of EP's and 2007's absolute masterpiece Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum, the band crafted a trilogy that takes as much influence from innovative works like Gorgut's seminal masterstroke Obscura as it does the hallmark classics by Noway's Emperor and Darkthrone. Employing rapidly changing time signatures, dissonant and unconventional compositions Deathspell Omega has manged to make the most evil and menacing sounding blackmetal I've heard in years. The do all of this without managing to sound even remotely like anyone else. With their latest release entitled Paracletus they finish their trilogy, which as a whole serves for them as meditation and philosophical thesis on what they call "metaphysical Satan worship".

The album begins with a fantastic track called "Epiklesis" and never really relents from there. Much like their previous albums, is difficult to pick a standout track because, A) the whole album is so fantastic and B) it's almost impossible to tell were one song ends and another begins. The album flows as one long continuous piece with passage from early tracks showing up again and again throughout the album as remade echos of their former selves. Gone are the empty spaces that were used to such dramatic effect on Fas -, as well as many of the more over the top elements, instead we have a more focused and dare I say proggy release this time around. Post rock riffs littered through out the album liberally and add a dimension to the material that really sets it apart from previous releases. The album works as a constant sonic ebb and flow that builds till the final climatic moments of "Apokatastasis Pantôn". Their drummer deserves an award for his (or her as the true band members of Deathspell are deliberately kept a secret) fantastic performance here consistently switching between time signatures so often and with such precision. Production on the album is almost perfect, with the drums and vocals being clear and present in the mix while the guitars maintain the perfect balance of distortion and clarity, and I think this might the first time I noticed that a blackmetal band had a bass player.

Like most great albums, this one truly demands that the listener be patient and sit down to enjoy it from beginning to end each listen. Bands like Deathspell Omega do not make casual listening albums for the I-pod generation, this is far more like a symphony than a collection of songs. The final result in a release that fans of Deathspell Omega and of avant garde blackmetal have been waiting for. However this album is not an easy listen for newcomers to the band, but one that a little patience with will pay off. While Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum remains the bands crowing achievement, Paracletus is an absolute earth shattering release and an easy contender for album of the year that should not be missed by fans of metal. If you have even the slightest interest in blackmetal I recommend you check this one out.

With "Paracletus," mysterious avant-garde black metallers Deathspell Omega further secure their position as one of the most unique and adventurous of metal bands. The terrific "Fas" remains a remarkable achievement, but it was perhaps a stylistic dead end--repeating that murderous onslaught could prove wearying. Thus, "Paracletus" takes a slightly more accessible approach, as was predicted with the "Chaining the Katechon" EP. There is more midpaced material here, the drumming is not quite as suffocatingly dense, and DsO even thrown in a few memorable vocal lines. Of course, this is only the mildest mainstreaming of their sound--anyone not interested in extreme metal would find this an unbearable cacophony. Thus, the heart of the band remains, and this is still an extremely sophisticated and meticulous bit of extreme metal. Deathspell Omega is simply a band without peers--no one else even tries to do what they do. Few could likely pull it off.

"Paracletus," as the final chapter of their trilogy, is another conceptual work best viewed and consumed as a whole. Thematically, it seems to describe the apocalypse of their theological system, with the world crumbling to a lifeless waste w/o any later renewal. Or maybe not, it's hard to say, but, whatever the case, the lyrics have an overwrought theatricality that matches the extremity of the instrumentation. The music itself proves to be the most grandiose they've written since SMRC, particularly in the post-metal interludes that can build to a symphonic intensity. (Some have called this a distillation of their various approaches, a reasonable description.) The purely metallic material uses a layered production style that gives the bass a prominent role and changes the general feel of the album. The more modest tempos give the rhythm section room to breathe, where the drums perform unconventional and faintly tribal patterns, while the bass is appropriately solid, providing an even foundation for the oddly shaped and accented drums and guitars. (The drumming isn't, perhaps, quite as terrific as on "Fas," but the anonymous drummer is still of the first caliber.) Similarly, the guitarwork moves more towards formless dissonance and shrieking Gorgutsian noise. As a whole, this is more atmospheric than their recent material, that is to say, atmospheric during the intense moments along with the somewhat more toned down material. That said, DsO leap into pure "Fas" style mayhem more than occasionally, particularly during "Phosphene" and "Devouring Famine."

Any conceptual work needs to maintain momentum continuously, and "Paracletus" has no major weak points. "Wings of Predation" provides a strong, forceful opening of DsO-standard brutality and ear-shredding guitars, while the following "Abscission" showcases their more mid-paced but equally dense approach. (The latter even have some quite memorable vocal lines.) The ten-minute pair "Dearth" and "Phosphene" are an album centerpiece, and contain some of their most rapid and effective alternations between post-metal minimalism and the most purely black metal style guitarwork of theirs in recent memory. DsO also save some surprises for the second half, with the surprisingly groove-oriented and straightforward "Have You Beheld the Fevers?" and the magnificent, nearly instrumental closer "Apokatastasis Panton," which provides a triumphant mix of black metal and post-metal sound along with being a pitch perfect conclusion to the album.

As for downsides, well, the artwork isn't up to their standards. (These are high standards, as "Fas" has perhaps my favorite art of any album.) Otherwise this is another intense, detailed, intelligent and impeccably technical release from the masters. Check it out.