Hæresiarchs of Dis - In Obsecration of the Seven Darks (2011)

Denuntiatus Cinis, last year's opus from Californian Cernunnos, was an epic and ambitious sprawl of classical overtures, grim ambiance, and traditional Norwegian black metal architecture that sent heads spinning off into hideous oblivion while they attempted to calculate what they had just experienced. It was easily one of my top picks for 2010, and having just recovered from its spectral awnings, I am now faced with the dread of its successor: In Obsecration of the Seven Darks. Now, naturally I'd be a little concerned as to how such a work of depth could so quickly be followed up, and in fact I have not wrung out so much enjoyment and appreciation here as its predecessor, but Hæresiarchs of Dis has nonetheless come through with sufficient complexity and variation to cement its status as a radar blip redolent of the now departed underground heroes Xasthur and Leviathan.

However, I mention these only in comparison as to the scope of vision and the strength of the individual as composer here, because Cernunnos has a notably different approach, distinctly influenced by the sweeping, symphonic black works of Norway and Sweden in the 90s. This is essentially a, spiritual, experimental extension of Emperor's Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk or In the Nightside Eclipse, bringing in a host of outside elements that, as on the debut, are arguably more memorable and intense than the black metal segments. There's even a cover of "Ensorcelled by Khaos" here which affirms my suspicions, lovingly laid out and mutilated into a fascinating if marginal deconstruction of the original. As expected, the album splits its hairs betwixt shorter, ambient or atmospheric pieces and meticulously structured black metal.

The former are best represented by the vocal sobriety of "Onward Through the Oculus" and its dour chants; the theatrical bluster of "Aut Vincere Aut Mori" with its snaking, scorching guitars, cautiously strung cleans and vaunted cathedral arches; the sweeping and roiling "Passage" with its haunted heartbeat, symphonic swells and the uplifting, beautiful tones of its closure; or the unexpected, Gothic cowboy crooning of "Grazioso Drone". Then there are several, similar curves embedded into the longer black metal compositions: like the finale "Dawn" which sounds about the same as the title would infer, or the first two minutes of "Confounded by the Vanquished Coil" which create a suitable, Philip Glass-like escalation from a crackpot din. In all honesty, these make for some of the best listening of the entire album...

Discounting the Emperor cover, there are four metallic rhapsodies populating this paradigm of alienation and escape, led by the titular "In Obsecration of the Seven Darks", an agonizing shuffle of menacing rhythms that is admittedly rather cluttered, if intriguing. The closing sequence is wonderful, with swooshing bass and battering guitars sailing off into a fading choir, but it never escapes its disjointed atmosphere. "Remembrance of He Who Defied God" fares better, with bristling, discordant notation evolved into a frenzy of bitter, streaming melodic passions, with a great thrashing breakdown around 4:30 and some surprisingly dynamic architecture beyond. "Confounded by the Vanquished Coil" is slower, with some spikes of clean vocals and wavelike horns ensnared within its folds; while "Consummation of the Seed" creates a fabric of tumult not unlike something Blut Aus Nord might pull before again erupting into the Norse rush and a catchy Eastern twist at the 2:00 mark.

Much of this is adorned in the ablutions of Cernunnos corrosive saliva, taut snarling executed with brutal conditioning that feels at times like a more full-bodied Ihsahn. As a whole package, it's once again an experience unlike many others you'll hear fielded from the one-man bands populating this spectrum of null colors. There is much attention to detail here, always some unnoticed ambient swill or melody dancing at the edge of your perception, and like the first album, it might take a few plays through to shape itself in your conscience. That said, I did not find Hæresiarchs of Dis so overwhelming this time as I did the last. Not because the element of surprise has been lost, per se, but I didn't find the metal songs quite so effective. This is still intelligent; quite pregnant with the ideas and ideosyncrasies of the debut, some even fresher, but it's mildly less even across the 51 minutes.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.toadstoolcomics.com/dis/

Hæresiarchs of Dis - Denuntiatus Cinis (2010)

It's both appalling and fascinating just how much the art of the 'solo' black metal artist has progressed through the years, beginning with some of the crudest, most amateur recordings known to mankind in the genre's birth; then progressing into something like Denuntiatus Cinis. USBM has always been strong in this area, fielding such loved (or hated) personalities as Wrest of Leviathan and Malefic of Xasthur, and through the spite-filled, toxic ministrations of the Hæresiarchs of Dis, we should now add Cernunnos to this small but expanding club, because the Californian demagogue of darkness has struck aural terror in its purest vein through this sophomore, eviscerating its 2008 predecessor Overture in the first few tracks alone.

Now, before I begin to salivate opaque ichor from my worship glands over the albums central, diabolic diatribes of pure evil, I first must note that there are really two albums going on here. One is a strain of no nonsense, well composed black metal with vicious vocals that sound like a feline envoy from the abyss using a crucifix as a scratching post until it bleeds, over interesting if largely standard black metal rhythms that will occasionally throw the listener for a loop, oozing clean male choirs that give the Norsest northlanders like Borknagar a run for their krone, and sparse but volatile undertones of progression. Most of these compositions dwell about the 7-9 minute range in length, and are very often alternated with the other album: a series of interludes and instrumentals that explore vast and wide territories of sound. The problem is, which of these two disparate but strangely unified entities is the superior Hæresiarch? I find it almost impossible to decide...

The instrumentals and segues are certainly the more mystical, whisking the listener's spirit away to realms of sodden obscurity, of rapt antiquity and supernatural miasma. "Entry" creates a vacuous, 2 minute roiling tone poem, like blunt leviathans keening their alien tongues through some cosmic wailing wall, or the flood of spiritual ambiance through an abandoned asylum or torture chamber. "The Respite"'s acoustic guitars reek of abandonment, of dust motes filtered through forsaken chambers, of claustrophobia in bloom. Then you're thrown for a total curve ball with the traditional but demented vocal folk of "Bemoan the Fallen", or the gorgeous if morose vocal symphony mourning of "Nine Days They Fell", the brooding horror narrative of "Intent Concupiscence", black distorted guitar sheen of "Intent the Succedaneum", or the sinking finale "Exeunt". For fuck's sake, the language this man uses in naming his bleak conjurations!

Woven through this aural adventure are several hymns of a more precarious, traditional nature, that is the actual black metal content, beginning at the searing "Intent the Prome" with its bewildering melodic collisions, deep and doomed clean vocals counteracted with snarling menace, and bizarre transgressions like the jangling mathematical bursts around 1:30 in. "Intent Canticle" creates the same surge of night sky vision that you once worshiped in Emperor, ridden with termite holes of strange nuance and discordance; "Intent the Augury" explodes from its rather humble asylum origins into a vortex of malaise, and "Median Existere" bristles with the black spikes of entropy as it navigates turbulent, blasted prose. But perhaps the best of its more aggressive offerings are located deeper towards the rear of this ritual, namely the wild and sporadic "Ad Baculum" and soul throttling rape rhythm of "Intent Postremo Enclosure Orsorum".

In the end, it doesn't really matter which of these paths you prefer to wander, because you've won either way, with damn near 70 minutes of hideous evil that provides one the very best USBM release I've heard this year (alongside the latest from I Shalt Become). Denuntiatus Cinis is a painful place with no respite, no soft surface upon which to rest your worn heels, and even its most tranquil moments exude obscene horror. Before long, you come to the realize that it's either Cernunnos or the rest of us. No balance, no order and no civilization can bear fruit in the shadow of such an entity, and he must be burned alive, this philandering, godless shell of man!

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

http://www.toadstoolcomics.com/dis/