“A masterpiece of Avant-garde Black and one of the greatest releases in extreme music” – I think these are the words that best describe this absolutely astonishing creation.
The album is framed by the songs ‘Obombration’, grandiose pieces of ravishing beauty which give the album a circle-like representation of the Infinite. Unlike the rest of the album’s lyrics written in English, the two Obombrations have Latin and Greek words that are used to create the best intro and outro for this album:
“Hagios ho Theos, Sanctus Deus / Hagios Ischyros, Sanctus Fortis
Deus, judica me... / ut quid, Domine, recessisti longe?
Judica me... perinde ac cadaver”
“Deus, judica me / ... et factus est sudor eius sicut guttae sanguinis decurrentis in terram.
Domine, in pulverem mortis deduxisti me / perinde ac cadaver.”
(Translation)
“God, judge me / ...and his sweat was made as drops of blood running down to earth.
Lord, into the dust of death you guided me / just as a cadaver.”
Having in mind the style created on the preceding album "Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice", we venture ourselves into the depths of this abyssal creation to firstly find ‘The Shrine of Mad Laughter’ whose instrumentation is just pure technical madness unleashed before ‘Bread of Bitterness’ and ‘The Repellent Scars of Abandon and Election’, songs filled with brilliantly-created dissonance, crushing drumming and catchy guitar riffs and tremolos that continue towards ‘A Chore for the Lost’ with mind-numbing complexity. The atmosphere created during this 46mins trip is the result of flawless album construction, the brain-child of these unknown geniuses.