Ye gods this Mories guy sure gets about! Not content with releasing countless albums via Gnaw Their Tongues he seems to be popping up all over the place and I seem to be reading press releases of his involvement elsewhere on a weekly basis. Another of the manic Dutch musician’s projects is De Magia Veterum where it should come as no surprise that he is involved in all aspects of the work solely. This project ‘The Magic Of The Ancients’ in case you were wondering has released two albums prior to this one as well as various demos and EP’s. I was not sure what I was expecting before I pressed play but guessed it was going to be kind of in the face having heard various other bits and bobs of Mories output, boy all I can say is that in your face is a description that doesn’t even get close!
This literally tears your face right off from beginning to end and the 36 minute album (thank the gods it’s no longer) is an exercise in unrelenting hellacious and downright unpleasant sonic textures. ‘Transfiguration’ just goes for it with huge drum sound and way up front winding and grinding guitars obliterating all they consume. Vocals are present in the background, spewing out vitriolic hate in a high pitched clamour as well as intoning cleanly and projecting dread like a magician casting a deadly spell. I suspect that some of the less hardy noise explorers may have quickly hit the stop button; this certainly is not for everyone. I found its spell particularly useful just the other day and employed it on a train full of annoying football supporters who promptly vanished into the ether as the ‘music’ filled my ears. Spewing blasphemy at every quarter, song titles like ‘The Stench Of Burning Wings’ leave little to the imagination. Getting to grips with the music is slightly more difficult as although I have seen it described as black metal it is far more caustic than that. There are very strong grind and noise elements going on here and it owes as much to black metal as perhaps very early Anaal Nathrakh material, this is obviously not trying to be conventional in any sense but just seems as though it is designed to obliterate all in its path. At times things slow to a crawl as on the loud and gabbling start of ‘The Flaming Sword,’ what it lacks in speed is more than made up for with hateful nastiness and it is not long before it speeds off and surges forward again.
At full on warp speed this tears off as on ‘The Heavens’ racing away into the far flung reaches with an intense winding melody surging through it. It’s enough to unbalance and make you feel giddy and sick. At other times it’s as though everything has been thrown together without any clarity and is caught up in a whirlwind as it all bounces off each other. By the time I get to last track ‘Angelical Deformity’ it’s as though my ears have been well and truly raped, this is full on and nasty as hell as we are splattered everywhere in the direction of the finish line. I’m not sure that I would recommend this album as such but if you are looking for some extreme sonic masochism you won’t be disappointed here.
http://www.myspace.com/demagiaveterum
Pete Woods
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