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Bands of all stripes crave publicity. Deathspell Omega seemingly does not. Their new EP Drought dropped last Friday with remarkably little fanfare, given DsO’s prominent place in the metal world. No breathless pre-release reviews. No full-album streams. No tell-all interviews. No tour.
Such secrecy is de rigeur for DsO. The band has made a point of shunning the press. Their lineup is (mostly) secret, and you can count the number of interviews they’ve granted in the last decade on one hand. Those interviews focus on their contorted version of theistic Satanism.
It’s hard not to interpret this reticence strategically. Deathspell Omega’s refusal to speak outside of their music strikes me as an unusual but effective PR tactic. Their reputation has certainly benefited from it. If the band was as disinterested in the public as they claim, they would not likely be releasing music through Season of Mist.
DsO draws similar benefits from their “Orthodox Satanism” theology, which the band privileges even above music. Fans sift through mazelike polyglot lyrics obsessively, trying to locate the center and boundaries of Deathspell Omega’s religious world. I can only imagine the pompous glee with which the band members regard these efforts.
Such exercises hold no appeal for me. I don’t doubt the sincerity of DsO’s expression of faith, but rather its coherence. This band, like Lucille Bluth from Arrested Development, gets off on withholding. Its members have not equipped their audience with the tools required to untangle their message, if they even fully understand that message themselves.
I am reminded of Jon Ronson’s nonfiction book The Psychopath Test. The book tells of an unbalanced Swedish scientist named Petter Nortlund, who anonymously mailed a puzzle to an assortment of academics and journalists. The puzzle maddened its recipients, who could not solve it despite their substantial collective reasoning powers. Ronson eventually determined that nobody could solve it because it was unsolvable; Nortlund designed it solely to frustrate the famously smart.
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Even this idea—an unsolvable puzzle—bears significance for religious faith. I’m sure DsO would love for me to go plunging down the rabbit hole again.
But my interest in Deathspell Omega depends almost entirely on their music itself, which I feel can be appreciated independently of their philosophical trappings. The band considers music and lyrics inseparable, and would probably accuse me of listening for “the wrong reasons”. Fortunately, creators do not have the final say over the way others experience their creations. I may be missing out, but DsO’s sound is rich enough to satisfy nonetheless.
In the AJNA Offensive interview linked above, the band acknowledges that their pursuits might carry them away from black metal. Drought, like Paracletus before it, bears little resemblance to black metal in the ’90s sense. The production is clean and clear; the songs are complex but concise (unlike those found on DsO’s other EPs); blastbeats cause bruises rather than reveries. No chanting or keyboards to be found.
Instead, Drought‘s three proper songs register as exceptionally twitchy technical death metal, played high on the fretboard and in standard tuning. (Deathspell Omega has noticeably influenced some death metal bands—see last year’s releases by Ulcerate and Baring Teeth, among others.) It’s hard to avoid the word “mathy” here—the band stutters like the Dillinger Escape Plan on “Swirling Abrasive Murk”.
When DsO throttles back, as on the instrumentals that bookend Drought, the effect becomes that of wiry progressive rock. I imagine Dysrhythmia jamming in the catacombs of Paris. As with Dysrhythmia, the bass guitar is the linchpin on these songs. I would welcome more such energetic bass work in death and black metal alike.
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Drought is complex, but earthy at its core. I feel it in my muscles, but it awakens no spiritual feelings. Given that Deathspell Omega play nominally liturgical music, this absence marks a failing of some sort. The band members would probably say that the failing is mine—that I am misinterpreting their work.
And perhaps I have. Given the band’s insistence on the importance of their lyrical content, I’m ignoring a lot of material. But given how much I’m enjoying Drought, I don’t really care. It’s a testament to the vibrancy of Deathspell Omega’s art that I can derive so much satisfaction even from an incorrect solution to their unsolvable puzzle.
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HEAR DROUGHT
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Deathspell Omega – Drought (complete)
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BUY DROUGHT
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Thanks for the review and for reminding me that this came out! Just purchased this without listening first. DsO has never let me down. I love everything they’ve done; even their earliest work is sublime, although it is quite different (Darkthroneesque of course) and not at all technical like their masterful later work. I enjoy how DsO explores the possibilities of different formats, EPs, LPs, etc.
Speaking of religion, I understand what you’re saying; I certainly don’t perform exegesis on their lyrics and have only read some of them. Neither am I a satanist. Nevertheless, the religious content of the lyrics does mean a lot to me and does contribute a lot to the experience of listening to this band. Just as gospel music makes your spirit soar and is supposed to give a vision of God, I feel myself being crushed by DsO, terrified, ripped to shreds, loathed, punished through their music. As you say in your review, their music does get math-ish, which is a genre I really don’t like, but DsO manages to turn this highly technical sound into something that is so affective, that still creates so much atmosphere and drama, so much feeling. That’s why I think that they are, musically, on the top, and when you consider how that fits with their religious message, that turns them into the most terrifying artistic group of our day.
I remember noting here the increasing resemblance, intentional or otherwise, to Dillinger and Jane Doe era Converge upon the release of ‘Paracletus’. I also shared the author’s dubiety over the evangelical and philosophical content and asked if any IO readers had a background in theology/divinity and were able to cast a critical eye over the validity of the religious aspect of the lyrics and artwork. The best I can do is relate it to an arcane, pushed-beyond-the-threshold cousin of Milton unfolding over a cycle of records. Any thoughts?
I’ve listened the hell out of ‘Si momentum’ for seven years but ‘Fas ite’ and ‘Kenose’, fascinating as they were, are so musically arid as to escape my grasp despite repeated spins. I regard anything pre ‘momentum’ as a different band, albeit a satisfying one. Hopefully this one will be as (relatively) digestible as ‘Paracletus’, musically at least.
Not heard this yet-my local vinyl enabler will provide soon enough.
Agree completely on the impenetrable nature of “Fas,” which was simply not worth the effort to listen to, but “Kenose” remains their high water mark for me. I love the way their 20-30 minute songs songs develop, and each of this EP’s three tracks cram a half hour’s worth of dynamics into ten minutes, and somehow it works.
Love that cover art. Gotta stream this when I get a sec–DsO are on a tear lately, coming off Paracletus.
DsO certainly don’t disappoint with the cover art! They always manage to pull off the magical metal cover — actually looks frightening, without looking cheesy, at least in my opinion. Fas might look cheesy to some, but I love it.
I couldn’t agree more with this review. I feel the same way about Absu, and really any band that undergirds its music with some sort of impenetrable /obscurantist occult philosophy. But the music absolutely rips, and that’s what matters to me.
Yup, on board with this. While the lyrical content is intriguing, it’s the music that captivates. I’m not always down with tech/prog/math, but as has been noted, this conveys real intensity and emotion and atmosphere. This is DsO’s magic. Challenge, wonder, dismay. Even at their most “unlistenable”, I find myself drawn back for repeated listens. As if I’m never really sure…
I guess that, even when proggy/mathy, DsO have something that most Prog/Math bands sorely lack: soul and deep conviction and instead of pushing instrumental showmanship everything they do serves that purpose.
When listening to the ethereal motifs that swirl in an out I think more of Johann Sebastian Bach, than other metal artists, the similarity being the perfect expression of the intended message. In Bach’s case obviously the awe of divinity and … I’m not quite sure what it is what DsO want to express, but it is sublime and beautiful and crude and hideous at the same time. That is what makes them so interesting and challenging.
Great review by the way, Doug!
The guy comes through as a loser douche in that interview. Theistic satanism? metaphysical struggle? blah blah blah? I’m surprised that people still buy this kind of pseudo-philosophical crap, including the author os the blog above… jesus…
You might note here that much of the review was about how I don’t buy their pseudo-philosophical crap.
Don’t worry, one day you’ll be a big boy and you’ll be able to understand grown-up words too.
btw, I couldn’t finish reading the interview because of all the extremely douchy long answers, if I kept reading there was a risk my brain would melt out of boringness
So you’re saying you have a soft brain and the attention span of a goldfish? Thanks for sharing.
^ What he said.
I’d say, perhaps contentiously, that all the best black metal acts have a good bass presence. Or damn well should do anyway.
Most of the best metal acts in general make good use of their bass players. What “good use” entails varies a lot from band to band, though.
Ha ha, very true. I’m grateful that in the year 2012 a lot of black metal bands seem to be able to use this instrument that seems to only have been recently discovered by many.
Agreed – great write up on a release that, a) I didn’t even know was coming out, and b) is from a band whose music and imagery I find enjoyable and absolutely immersive, even without attempting to truly ‘get’ it.
Quite apart from the lyrics, I can’t stand DsO’s vocals. They have that cheesy ‘De Mysteriis’-style frog-croak thing going on. I love the music; it has a genuinely weird quality. But I’d prefer some tortured, Vikernesque screams.
Have not gotten this yet but certainly will. Musically, Deathspell Omega have never disappointed me. As for their philosophical intentions, it is my humble observation that most black metal musicians (at least the honest ones) make music to please themselves, and such is the approach I take with listening to their music- to please and entertain myself. I am not interested in being indoctrinated, and I have more important things to take seriously than whatever a musician wants to preach about. If that bothers them I couldn’t care less.
Nice write-up, Trez. I enjoyed Paracletus, so I’m sure I’d enjoy this, but I’ll probably just wait for the next full length. I’m not a big enough fan to shell out money for an ep.
At least DsO have a unique sound. So many (black) metal bands sound the same these days……Whatever DsO play It’s pure genius. Regardless of the lyrics -not that anyone can understand one word Nikko Aspa is actually saying without reading through the lyric booklet a million times. I don’t give a shit if he is singing about Satanism or teddy bears. The overall musical experience kicks ass! \m/
I think the confusing message this band constantly presents is more proof of pretentiousness and self-indulgence than anything else. For all we know, the band members probably make a lot of this shit up as they go along, as I doubt there’s any type of keystone to whatever they believe in. I think fact that it’s a good marketing scheme is more just a byproduct of that and is more consequential than anything else. That said, the music is what’s important, and although I enjoyed this EP, it lacks the emotion that was presented so clearly in Paracletus. Nice writeup, Doug.
Vesumium: “Quite apart from the lyrics, I can’t stand DsO’s vocals. They have that cheesy ‘De Mysteriis’-style frog-croak thing going on. I love the music; it has a genuinely weird quality. But I’d prefer some tortured, Vikernesque screams.”
^ That’s a ridiculous amount of fail right there.
Oh, and this is a doozy – “Its members have not equipped their audience with the tools required to untangle their message”
Here’s a hint: check out the translation of Si Mon…
Also, try reading and extrapolating. I know it’s an effort for people these days…
Agree with Terry, 100%.
“played high on the fretboard and in standard tuning”
Dude, if you don’t know anything about the technical aspect of their music, which you objectively don’t, just stick to platitudes…
They play more or less exclusively a whole step down, and they play ‘higher register’ chords etc as a layering. There’s plenty of rhythm low end.
Nice review. Glad I listened to this.
I’m Curious why people feel they need to have validity or coherence to their “religious” lyrics. They created it and its grown and evolved over time. I think the change in is what makes it most interesting.
Also, I think there message is very clear. Almost everything i’ve read by them seems to stay true a general Leviathan-esk philosophy, accept that they choose to view in it a theistic manor. I’ve also read quite a bit of spiritual Nihilism in their work.
I’d accuse you of pompous glee, first, doug.
“…If the band was as disinterested in the public as they claim, they would not likely be releasing music through Season of Mist.”
Music is a current that runs through people – manifests in the soul, if you believe in such a thing. How many people that want to create are limited by budgets when aiming to achieve their vision? Is it more noble to pack and mail your own CDs or have a label/distro do it? The artist is then free to create or do whatever else it is they want to do.
The need to create music and worrying yourself about who hears it are disparate entities. The Black Legions stuff wasn’t meant to be heard, but that didn’t stop anyone from accessing it. Getting a dollar or two to assist in creating the best version of your vision is smart and it needn’t be anything more.
First rule of all Black and Death Metal. Do not read the lyrics. Religious psychobabble aside, Deathspell never fails to deliver on the compositions. I will agree that they are more abrupt than groovy like most black metal bands, their technical prowess is more than evident. I really like this release, screw mainstream music, Deathspell Omega does it right.
As always with DsO, the music is some of the best in all metal the last few years, if only they would kick out that horrible vocalist which is the only thing that keeps you down from flying to the outmost places of this universe. i don’t even care about the lyrics, they might be even interesting, when presented by such a moron redneck, i don’t even care. it’s like taking some really awesome halluzinogenes, but then you can’t really go tripping because there is always something not letting you totally go. and fas was the best, they will never reach that again anyway.
Don’t read the lyrics and don’t eat the brown acid. Wow, this band is what nightmares are made of. May I have another hit?
Obviously you missed the fact that I was referencing an earlier comment on this post and was juxtaposing that with the famous Woodstock statement made from the stage. To spell it out, which I am loathe to do, is you can make an attempt to decifer their convoluted cosmological message or just enjoy(or suffer) their music. A reviewer on Decibel referenced their music to a “bad acid trip”, I don’t think I need to further my obtuse, to many, murky attempt at humor.
To say that there lack of public apperence is a pr trick is completley idiotic. Do you honestly belive that DsO sells more albums by releasing album completely without anything stating it than pr, interviews, marketing and loads of tours? Dork!
And to say things on the lyrics when you say it yourself, that you don’t pay attention to them and saying things like they dont really know what their talking about and more or less only creating smoke screens.
YOu should be working on mtv or a clear channel radio station and talking about stuff you know about. You know, gossip about the cool kids and the next big thing.