Corpus Diavolis - Elixiria Ekstasis (2024)

Adorned in what might be the most erotically diabolic cover artwork of the year, the fifth album from Corpus Diavolis offers another scorching on the more traditional side of European BM, never sounding quite so distinct as its avant-garde French countrymen, nor the Medieval stylings of other peers, but full-on Satanic, blasting black metal. The reliance is wholly on the sinister, ritualistic infusions, but that's not to say that this is some monotonous, overblown effort, it's meticulously plotted and padded out to offer enough variation that you'll enjoy exploring some of its longer tracks, a couple of which just scrape the 10 minute ceiling. I had already been impressed with the group's 2021 effort Apocatastase, and this one is ever more nasty sounding and effective.

That's not to say you'll come across much original, but the Frenchmen overwhelm you with components that keep the experience like a richly occult canvas that continues to sprawl out across a dungeon wall. Vocals shift in between genre rasps, snarls, tortured groans, and little passages of chanted choirs that hit at just the right time like the finale of opener "His Wine Be Death". The guitars possess the balance of tremolo picked, winding and sinister melodies, but also spiked up with little atmospherics, clean or dissonant and always conscious of expanding the sound to a higher level than just its basic rhythmic drive. The drumming is as savage as necessary for the style, charged up with lots of little fills or percussive fits that add even more of that ritual haze to the proceedings, and the bass is just present and plunky enough to fatten up the bombast, especially during the slower to mid-paced segments of the disc.

There's an advanced sense of depth and composition here in tunes like "Cyclopean Adoration" and "Menstruum Congressus" that transcends any superficial stab at the style, and if you're fond of black metal bands that go that extra mile, you'll easily find yourself lost in its orgiastic, serpentine, vaulted mysteries, like an entire forbidden night at some vile subterranean temple, caught to tape. That's not to say that it's always so strikingly memorable, but there's enough meat here musically and lyrically to appreciate and Corpus Diavolis makes for another consistent, competent and compelling pillar of its scene.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://www.corpusdiavolis.com/

Corpus Diavolis - Apocatastase (2021)

Corpus Diavolis has a sound which distinguishes it from both the more Medieval/historically-inflected black metal and avant-garde/dissonant spectrums of the French scene. Instead, they imbue their concepts with a more steady, ritualistic and I'd even hazard, theatrical leaning which offers a mesmeric experience to those willing to patiently sit through the experience; while the band does come up with some solid individual riffs and choral sections, this is one where the impact of the 45 minute whole is far more memorable and menacing than trying to break it into shorter listening bites. While the totality is largely cast in the black metal mold, there are also some riffing undercurrents more redolent of classic death metal which snake their way into the apocryphal atmosphere.

Production is clean and powerful, from the tremolo picked serpentine riffs so important, to the louder, broader doomy chord patterns that they'll often transcend into. The rhythm guitars are for me one of the two highlights, always layering in some atmospheric, open ringing notes or chords to the slower segments, and then picking up volatility and wicked attitude when the speed increases. The other strength is the vox, which are mixed between dependable rasps, growls and grimy narrative passages, and then these great, deep male choir bits which work wonderfully when the percussion gets a little more thunderous and tribal. A great example of their style is "The Dissolution of Eternal Extasy in the Embrace of Satan", which has so much on offer between its incendiary riff changes and creeping atmosphere throughout the bridge. The drumming is super steady, with nearly robotic double bass kick speed, but also loads of cool fills and a flair for the exotic/tribalist with a Celtic Frost To Mega Therion influence. In fact, while Apocatastate is obviously a lot more involved and technical than such a classic, Corpus Diavolis definitely put me in mind of how a band like that might have sounded if it started in the current time, that sort of cloying, occult atmosphere just saturates this experience and its pretty formidable.

There were a few moments when the engagement dipped a bit for me and felt more like background noise, but I attribute this more to the attention span I was feeling in that moment, and not any dearth in quality of delivery, because ultimately this is yet another strong act in what might be the strongest black metal scene in the world, with both its more conventional and experimental acts delivering non-stop for the last two decades. Apocatastase has the production, the musicianship, the sinister unease to hold its value for years to come, even if it's not something you'd file as an instant masterpiece. The packaging for the CD is also great with its gold print against black, Satanic artwork, interesting lyrical lore, and overall this is an easy one to recommend whether you're into the band's French peers or the orthodox black metal stuff out of Sweden (Ofermod, Ondskapt, Funeral Mist, Mephorash, etc).

Verdict: Win [8/10]

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