DEATHSPELL OMEGA — Drought (review)

EP · 2012 · Black Metal

4/5 · 2021-01-02
siLLy puPPy

DROUGHT was the second EP to emerge after the DEATHSPELL OMEGA’s attention grabbing Satanic trilogy of albums that showed the world that black metal could be as intellectually saturated with theological highbrow concepts accompanied by the most progressive and complex compositional fortitude of any advanced musical style while still hiding in the complete anonymity of darkness. Following 2011’s single tracked “Diabolus Absdonditus,” DROUGHT featured six separate tracks that more or less coalesced into a single 21 minute experience.

Cranking out the already established mix of jagged blistering black metal guitar riffs, bantering bass lines and technical percussive assaults accompanied by despondent Satanic liturgies in the form of raspy vocals, DROUGHT showcased yet another methodology of taking all the individual parts that made up the sonic terror of DEATHSPELL OMEGA and put it all together in yet another unique recipe. Although to the uninvited listener, this will all come across as bantering din from social deviants, this French band finds still more ways of mixing slow plodding, even doom metal fueled nonchalantness with caustic aggressive fury.

“Salowe Vision” opens as what sounds like a band fully exhausted from its decade long rampage with slow plodding riffs that sound as if the band is ready for a complete breakdown but emerges into top form on the fueled by Satan orotundity of “Fiery Serpents.” Fueled with jagged guitar riffs that seem to have taken an even more boastful pride in crating gnarled math rock inspired progressive time signatures, DROUGHT continues the swells of sonic scare tactics in a seemingly limitless ability to shape shift around simple rhythmic processions fortified with an endless array of darkened dynamics.

While “Diabolus Absconditus” seemed to thrive on its simplicity, DROUGHT on the other hand returned to the antics of the Satanic trilogy with incessant drifts of highly fustian freelancing that delivered an entire album’s worth of emotional torture tactics all in the short playing time of 21 minutes. While the shock value may have been long gone for members of the DSO cult, the perfunctory prowess of the musical complexities does not cease to impress. Few black metal bands have mastered the vast arsenal of tricks and trinkets that DEATHSPELL OMEGA has and although far into the band’s canon, DROUGHT only reinforces that this band had an extraordinary beyond human sort of talent that seemingly came from Faustian pacts with you know who.

DSO disappeared for several years after this and wouldn’t re-emerge from the underworld until 2016’s “The Synarchy of Molten Bones” but the band’s legendary status reverberated well into the 2010s with countless imitators adopting the highly complex and atonal characteristics that DSO launched with its lauded masterpieces of molten maniacal monstrosity. It seems that in many ways that this would end the first era of DEATHSPELL OMEGA’s reign as rulers of the black metal underworld and that what came after was simply a retread of all the established sounds that preceded. Fittingly the title DROUGHT signified the four year gap when DSO returned to the underworld to offer the captured souls that their music attracted. Sure the ticket is your soul but at least there is a 30-day satisfaction guarantee or your soul back! Whew, that was close :D