Rating: 9.8 Release Date: 2006 Record Label: Xtreem Music Track list:
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Demigod - Slumber of Sullen Eyes (Reissue)
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Slumber of Sullen Eyes lineup: Seppo Taatila- Drums |
Unholy Domain lineup: Esa Lindén- Guitar/VocalsTero Laitinen- Bass Seppo Taatila- Drums
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Well, what more can be said about one of the LANDMARKS of transcendental death metal, a cornerstone record that lies beyond disputation or disrespect? An album that, along with Cemetary's 'Evil Shade Of Grey', Tiamat's 'Sumerian Cry'/'Astral Sleep', Therion's 'Beyond Sanctorum', Atrocity's 'Hallucinations' and Amorphis' 'Karelian Isthmus', Darkthrone's 'Soulside Journey' really exemplifies the truly morbid underbelly of Scandinavian death metal, prior to the inevitable influx/insurgence of Gothenburg wankery. When immersing oneself in the otherworldliness of the record, one cannot help but wonder how the lessons imparted by the ancient Finnish deities have been so lost upon a generation of Kalmah and Children of Bodom worshipping nitwits. Truly, this album balances haunting, malefic melody, jackhammer bludgeon and pitch-black, doom-ridden atmosphere in a manner that is virtually unparalleled, and there are a whole host of reasons why this album has continued to be such a hot e-bay commodity since it went out print many years ago.
Describing the sonic slant of this recording is not entirely difficult- take five parts bludgeoning early Dismember/mid-period Bolt Thrower-esque piledriving bludgeon, three parts Depravity/Cemetary-ish morbid melody, an esoteric, horror-based concept not altogether removed from the likes of Gorement, Sorcery, God Macabre and Darkthrone, as well as an ethereal, indescribable atmosphere that brings Therion to mind. In a scene littered with assertively individual bands (Adramelech, Cartilage, Xysma, Funebre, Belial and DEMILICH!), Demigod come across as both predictable and utterly unique.
The despairing despondency and thoroughly sinister atmosphere of the album reflects the aesthetic heritage the band shares with Depravity, Abhorrence, Mythos and the like, while the gutwrenching intensity and battering-ram HEAVINESS of the band's double-bass fuelled passages fit perfectly alongside contemporaries like Funebre. Yet, for all the album's apparent viciousness and lead-footed HEFT, the record has a mystical weightlessness and meditative quality that is really quite beautiful to behold. Indeed, this is death metal as mind-expanding experience- somehow, the band manages to make dense, destructive death metal sound vast and atmospheric. The entire record is an expansive, dreamlike plateau, each song marking a new monument on the unearthly landscape. Such engrossing journeys are few and far between in death metal, and the cosmic drift of the album can in part be attributed to the production, which transforms the guitar sound into a spiraling, absorbing vacuum that envelopes the listener, and emanates a fantastic, organic warmth that eludes many of Demigod's harsher-than-thou colleagues. Add to this the bewitching, contemplative lead melodies that adorn each and every song, as well as the EXCEPTIONALLY tasteful keys that reinforce the enveloping aura of the record, and you have a fantastic excursion that you will not soon forget.
Yes, this is one of the albums where technical details are absolutely insignificant- I could ramble on effusively about how the band manages to meld exotic Morbid Angel scales with punishing, palm-muted pound, full-blooded thrash chug and Swedish tremolo picking, often within the breadth of a single song, how tempos shift seamlessly between cascading double bass sprint and doom-laden sprawl, how disorienting twin lead melodies waltz effortlessly with each other atop an assertive rhythm section. I could write extensively about how much thought has been placed into the construction and execution of each melody line, lead melodies being used to reinforce or subvert the dominant riff, or spin off into entirely new tangents, guiding the listener through new, unexplored areas of his consciousness. Yet, all these cosmetic details are merely means to an end, and to call the record a conceptual triumph is a gross understatement. Supplementing the out-of-body feel of the record are the lyrics, which have a Gnostic, Lovecratian-dream-quest slant that cements a fundamental thematic basis upon which all the sublime genius is erected. I won't even BEGIN to get into individual songs here, this is a pilgrimage that every death metal devotee must undertake himself.
Tacked on to this superb reissue is the 'Unholy Domain' demo, which treads a more straightforward path musically and lyrically (horror theme remains, but there is a gore/zombie/carnivorous slant that presents a more blatant contrast to the more obscure, metaphysical LP). The labyrinthine instrumental “Perpetual Ascent” is somewhat weaker here than on the LP, though the differences are, to be fair, very subtle (the keyboard intro was nixed for the LP). “Anxiety” is harrowing, skull-stomping steamroller death metal, and the glaring differences in production values between the demo and the LP are made painfully clear here- this is a far harsher and less inviting affair sonically. Guitars bruise and bristle, bass anchors the low end admirably, while Seppo Taatila exhibits all the musicality and imagination that would make his performance on the LP so flabbergasting, executing a host of nimble fills throughout. Songwriting on the demo is noticeably more linear, while melody is downplayed considerably in lieu of thrashier, more savage fare, dynamic shifts being far more pronounced due to the general uniformity of pace. It is truly astonishing to think that the band would proceed, from this point (which is, to say, exceptionally raw and single-minded violence not altogether removed from Unleashed, Séance and the like) to unleash one of the most magical, mesmerizing death metal releases of our time.
There you have it, then, a masterpiece in every bloody sense of the word. Stand this alongside 'Abominations Of Desolation', 'Altars Of Madness', 'Deicide', 'The Key', 'The Science Of Horror', 'Nespithe', 'Beyond Sanctorum', 'Soulside Journey', 'Closer To A World Below', 'Hallucinations', 'Todessehnsucht', 'Changes/Love Songs', 'Szygial Miscreancy', 'Dark Recollections', 'Deathcult For Eternity', 'Eternal Fall' and other similarly hypnotic masterpieces of morbidity. Buy or die!
August 20th, 2006
