
To be sure, Divinity Through Un-Creation doesn't do much beyond what the target audience might expect from this genre. There is a clear undercurrent of Scandinavian influence, at least from the more raw recordings of Burzum, Bathory, Immortal and Emperor, but what I loved is how IV sets up the slower, tremolo riffing patterns in tunes like "Sins of the Flesh" and "Decrepit Heart of the Shadow-sun" to make the listener feel as if he/she has been placed in some necrotic Western, the vile note-flow bouncing off surrounding canyons and the agony of the central, growled rasp drawn upon the influx of carrion winds that have risen from the carnage of cattle and men strewn about some cracked, hell-baked valley floor. There's a lot of hissy, open air texture to the chord progressions, and even if the riffs seem mildly predictable, they never seem to lose their razor-like effect on the spirit of the audience.
At times, Ill Omen will surge into a more generic, less appealing thrust of pure mayhem that feel like you've experienced them a thousand times before, but this ironically offers a relief from the album's more frightening desolation, like the doomed, lilting steppes at the center of the "Ceremonial Malign" or the bright and agonizing certainty of "The Great Keys Inherit". In all, I'd say that IV has done a great job here of balancing off the album's periods of violent velocity with the more emotionally crippling, atmospheric sequences, and I also enjoyed the mournful envelope of chanted intro ("Utterance Befell the Curse") and cold, New Age female vocal outro ("Of Those Silence...") that contain the rest of the soul-wrenching goods. Ill Omen's full-length debut is an appreciable breath of loathsome revulsion, a messenger of Death and bodes 'well', rather than 'ill', for the project's future. Enjoy the rotting.
Verdict: Win [7.75/10]
http://www.adverseordermusic.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment