ALBUM REVIEW: Deathspell Omega – The Long Defeat

France’s Black Metal masters DEATHSPELL OMEGA have unleashed a new album without warning, out now via Norma Evangelium Diaboli.

Chanting begins the album with a foreboding boom of drums. This disconcerting opening moment soon ascends into eerie riffs and earth-shattering bass guitars atop those angular drums that Deathspell Omega use to such great effect. Jarring and sparse riffs create a hypnotic but uneasy atmosphere with a rather melancholy undertone due to soulful lead work before becoming fiercer and more malicious. When the vocals make their impact, it is harrowing, with a bone chilling delivery. Oddities come soon enough and the one-of-a-kind soundscapes that the band has become pioneers of are certainly present, giving an introspective ambience while the violent music attacks the collective subconscious in all whom witness the destructive magic summoned here. The tectonic shifts from sublime dancing melodies to malignant and contorted shrieks of abyssal despair are moving and terrifying in equal measure, offering an abundance of sonic and spiritual disdain that is, as ever, genuine in its malice.

Sprawling through the 5 new musical offerings is an unending sense of urgency that seems to go unsatisfied from song to song. This only adds more to the collective and greater vision of the album in its desolate splendour (the artwork itself can be referenced upon for a huge insight to the sonics, for the aesthetics reflect them). Interestingly, there is some more emphasis on amazing guitar solos than one might expect that show the technicality that Deathspell Omega are capable of can indeed be traditionally metallic as well as completely disturbing. This touch adds a direction to the record that underlines just how scathing and respiteless it truly is. The mountainous drumming is so well varied that it could stand alone in its intricacy and still be hard to examine or penetrate. When covered in gut-wrenching bass lines and psychedelic riffs or sheer maniacal vocals, this entire wall of sound simply lumbers towards you with ill-intent.

From desolate howls and anguishing passages to sheer, unbridled and brutish aggression, there is no denying the emotional complexities and contrasts utilised on this record. In fact it is very difficult to ignore the juxtaposing feeling that hit from all angles in a very claustrophobic manner while the music itself sounds so expansive. While I try to refrain from speaking in riddles, Deathspell Omega have always been a hard band to describe with mere words and that remains true here. These 5 songs are individually monumental while each misses something when listened to singularly to become clearer when included in the greater arc of the records esoteric foundations. It never ceases to amaze how a band can simultaneously sound so unorthodox and yet uphold certain musical traditions (albeit it in their own distorted manner) with such effectiveness but this talent is still not lost, in fact the balance here seems as potent as ever.

There is something ultimately masochistic in indulging in the multi-faceted abuses of Deathspell Omega that inevitably keeps us coming back. But it is undeniably rewarding. This new tome is another unique, ground-breaking and scolding delivery from one of Black Metal’s most principal artists. Mind-warping ecstasy reigns supreme.