Deathspell Omega - Paracletus

December 15, 2010

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I’ve read a lot about Deathspell Omega and learned very little. This is due to the band’s secrecy – which is hardly airtight – but also to the fact that few have truly grappled with what Deathspell Omega is. Many enjoy; few process.

The two best reads I’ve found on DsO are the AJNA Offensive’s interview here and Lurker’s brave attempt to sum up the band here. While they raise more questions than answers, these texts are valuable in helping parse DsO.

What I learn from them is that Deathspell Omega is, first and foremost, religious music. This isn’t news, given the coinage in recent years of a black metal subclass called “orthodox”. Characteristics of such orthodoxy usually include (1) a Christian-like discourse with Satan instead of God as the deity, (2) profuse Latinate language, and (3) insufferable pretension. A quote from the above-linked interview: “[W]e are of course better than most humans, our humility lies on a metaphysical level”.

These trappings matter, however. In the AJNA Offensive interview, the band says, “[I]t’s basically the debate between those who want to enthrone Black Metal as a form of Art…and those who want to let it remain as merely another form of entertainment. We despise this second category, immensely and irremediably”. This is fair. If you read this site, you, too, probably view metal as more than just entertainment. The band emphasizes, “We do not share this common conception that music and words are separate things, to us they are deeply linked and complementary”.

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So the terms of engagement are music and words, not music or words. You could tap your foot to the music and have it clattering in the background, but then you would not be engaging with it fully. It comes as a total package. The band is clear about this. In the AJNA Offensive’s interview, it mentions buying its albums for “the wrong reasons”. That means there are right ones.

What they are, however, isn’t clear. According to the AJNA Offensive interview, the so-called metaphysical trilogy of DsO’s last three records (Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice; Fas – Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum; and now Paracletus) comes couched in “theological uncertainty”. The band says, “[T]raditionalism and certainty aren’t standpoints we can defend forever”. So the band is learning as it goes along. I’m not sure what exactly it’s learning, as across these albums, I’m busy sifting through Latin, Greek, French, and turgid English. If the intent is evangelism, it’s ineffective; the message is too gnarled.

This is art of personal exploration, as evidenced by many references to anguish. Corpus Christii and Merrimack have similarly tormented takes on Satanism. This practice of religious individuals has always puzzled me. If one is to choose an irrational framework to guide one’s life, why choose one that makes one feel so bad? Perhaps people have a natural desire to enslave themselves. I tend to agree with the Lurker commentator who said, “Typical metaphysical onanism. Slaves shall serve”.

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So, ironically, Deathspell Omega don’t leave me with much but the music. Their divine is, according to them, some moving target that they can hardly define/divine. (Admittedly, my divine is also a moving target, albeit what Jules in Pulp Fiction called the holiest of holies.) But the music is more directed. At least it has gotten that way; SMRC is not as iconic for me as it is for others because its seams are visible. The performances are up and down, and in the production, the strings pulling the flying saucers are evident. But everything afterwards has been seamless – the Kénôse EP was a beautiful study in dirt, Fas in cleanliness, and the Chaining the Katechon EP likewise.

Now comes Paracletus (Norma Evangelium Diaboli / Season of Mist, 2010), which sounds fully realized. The songs are accessible, with efficient constructions and compact lengths. The production is clean, compressed, and distractingly modern. (Watain’s Lawless Darkness suffered the same problem; it’s hard to invoke the ancients when you sound like a Pro Tools showcase.) Sound quibbles aside, the material is fantastic. A commentator here made a comparison to Sonic Youth, which is apt – see Evol. Minus the vocals and drums, this is essentially very mean, dissonant math rock. It has little in common with the black metal conventions of minor chords and tremolo picking. Yet some passages are melodic and almost tender, perhaps reflecting the vulnerability of a search for spirituality. On a purely musical level, this is some of the most stimulating stuff today.

OK, I do engage with this on more than a purely musical level. The nature of fanaticism – and those are what religious zealots are, regardless of left or right hand path: fanatics – is fascinating. How can someone be so into something one can’t see? What do they experience that I don’t? How can one claim Truth with a capital T out of pure faith? What makes people reject Christianity, but cobble together some alternate faith out of esoterica, apocrypha, and, yes, even the Bible? Why must there be a divine? Critics in other genres have it lucky. They usually don’t have to face art that challenges their personal convictions. But here’s heavy metal, being truly heavy. I suppose I could dismiss it on a purely rational basis. But having it, and the resulting friction, in my life is, well, also stimulating.

— Cosmo Lee

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HEAR PARACLETUS

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– FULL ALBUM STREAM –

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“Devouring Famine”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX6h5RP3GNs

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“Phosphene”