It was only last October that the debut album by this band ‘Visionary’ dropped through the door and confused the hell out of me and already here is the follow up. The group have cut down the number of tracks here to just five and over a 55 minute running time you can be assured of an epic listening experience. The Norwegian duo still have very little about them to be found on the Internet and that’s fair enough as in this day and age it is increasingly more difficult for a band to stay out of sight and truly within the underground if that is what they wish to do. The Underground is certainly Dødsengel’s natural habitat too, as listening to their arcane art it is the stuff that belongs buried deep beneath the earth where it is left to fester and putrefy.
This is nasty, without the slightest taint of commerciality about it, mature and evil orthodox black metal and a sermon from the heart and soul. The label they are now with looks equally passionate about their stuff and release quality over quantity and have previously dealt with Urfaust, Archgoat and Celestial Bloodshed amongst others. This particular album is limited to 1000 copies and the artwork painted especially for it by Norwegian artist Sindre Foss Skancke is particularly striking as well. The artist apparently shut himself away with the music and came up with the imagery.
These jagged and visceral unholy sermons are spewed out with grim relish, vocalist Kark has a really good, loud bite about his parts which are delivered with bloodcurdling finesse and depravity. The instrumental parts are manic and unhinged as the somewhat strangely entitled ‘Azonei Wyrdwalker’ blazes away. As for keyboards, forget them. ‘Evocation of Amezarak’ is almost 20 minutes long and this one slowly and sinuously unwinds before the beastly names of abominable fallen angels are summoned forth. One gets the feeling reading the lyrics that this ghastly duo may well practise what they preach and know their demonology, this is interpreted into musical form in a fashion that suggests it’s pretty close to opening the very gates of hell too. The feeling of pain, hate and loathing is atmospherically brought through the vocals and the fact that they are sung in English is a bit of a surprise and makes them a lot easier to follow; the gasps, gargled screams and tortured cries are however universal!
The whole thing is not only manic in the extreme and highly charged stuff but it literally drags you through a hedge backwards and then drops you down a deep dark hole. The music is complex and there is no chance of getting fully to grips with it quickly, if ever at all. Moods drop from fast feral attacks into sudden doomy dark abyss-like depths on ‘Alor Mal Ki’ and you never quite know where the album is going to take you next. As for the ghastly hymnal oration of last song ‘Lucifer Ascendant’ it’s enough to summon pure dread and one that only the most daring would play alone in the dark. It’s all too easy to dismiss so many black metal bands as being all image and no substance but there is something about Dødsengel which has them flagged up as the real deal. If you can cope with that, get the album whilst you can, it probably won’t be around for long.
http://www.myspace.com/dodsengel
