The shadowed hydra known as Deathspell Omega stirs, once again birthing a horrid offering of some of the most mind-bending black metal the genre has to offer. The Furnaces of Palingenesia is a hulking mass of what we have come to expect from Deathspell Omega at this stage of their evolution.
Though the album is 11 tracks, it goes by rather quickly, as several adjacent songs — like "Sacrificial Theopathy" and "Standing on the Work of Slaves" — feel like two parts of the same song. Alone, such songs would be much less impactful, if not accompanied by their immediate counterparts. In that way, the album does not feel like 11 tracks.
Deathspell Omega have become renowned for scathing technicality, matched with a maelstrom rage that never fails to overwhelm the listener in the band's immense shadow. "The Fires of Frustration" and "Absolutist Regeneration" most definitely uphold that promise, yet The Furnaces of Palingenesia seems equally constructed on slower-paced dread.
"Ad Arma! Ad Arma!" is a slow trod in the shackles of enslavement, while "1523" emotes a rarely felt sense of hopeless aftermath. Vocalist Mikko Aspa's voice is particularly wretched throughout, rarely ever silencing its stream of vitriol that rides the churning waves that Deathspell manifest, with a delivery that matches the band's unrelenting nature.
But another notch of excellence on an arguably flawless discography, Deathspell Omega sound as supernaturally violent as ever, while simultaneously revelling in a more subdued realm that sacrifices nothing in the way of quality.
(NoEvDia)Though the album is 11 tracks, it goes by rather quickly, as several adjacent songs — like "Sacrificial Theopathy" and "Standing on the Work of Slaves" — feel like two parts of the same song. Alone, such songs would be much less impactful, if not accompanied by their immediate counterparts. In that way, the album does not feel like 11 tracks.
Deathspell Omega have become renowned for scathing technicality, matched with a maelstrom rage that never fails to overwhelm the listener in the band's immense shadow. "The Fires of Frustration" and "Absolutist Regeneration" most definitely uphold that promise, yet The Furnaces of Palingenesia seems equally constructed on slower-paced dread.
"Ad Arma! Ad Arma!" is a slow trod in the shackles of enslavement, while "1523" emotes a rarely felt sense of hopeless aftermath. Vocalist Mikko Aspa's voice is particularly wretched throughout, rarely ever silencing its stream of vitriol that rides the churning waves that Deathspell manifest, with a delivery that matches the band's unrelenting nature.
But another notch of excellence on an arguably flawless discography, Deathspell Omega sound as supernaturally violent as ever, while simultaneously revelling in a more subdued realm that sacrifices nothing in the way of quality.