DØDSENGEL : "Bab Al On"

 

Norway's most legit occult black metal band is back with their 5th album. Norway is thought of as the birthplace of the second wave black metal, which is what most metal heads and pop culture hipsters think of when it comes to black metal, but how many of those bands have an actual interest in the occult? Satanism and the occult are not synonymous. The concept of Satan has very little to do with the goddess Babylon which this album explores the Thelemic perspective of. The vocals are on a King Diamond level of crazy in regard to the different vocals colors he uses. Not saying that he goes into a high falsetto, but he uses a wide variety of goblin like vocal histrionics to create a theatrical feel., The second song is more atmospheric, but it does come together and feel more like a song by the end so I cannot fault them for that

The dark theatrics do invoke a ritualistic feel going into "Annihilation Mantra": which has a throat singing drone to it. Here they begin to cross the line from songs to sounds. Making dark magical music is way fucking true to what black metal should be. The vocal roar back with a more powerful death metal like growl on "Waters of Unravelling" that has a more deliberate Watain like feel in how it darkly marches. The vocals begin to break away from that and get more dramatic which I am here for as it switches things up from what we normally hear from black metal. I can also understand the lyrics and where they are going in terms of the theme this album is establishing which is a novel concept. They find themselves in more common ground with the black metal status quo on "Bursting as Boils on the Backs of Slaves". 

The vocals take on a more witching snarl with "the Lamb Speaks". The songs more deliberate throb works better than their previous attempts at the more blasty sounds. "Agnus Dei" is sung with sparse acoustic guitar. It is more of an interlude. "Hour of Contempt"  goes from blasting black metal to a more deliberate passage and back to blasting conforming with mass expectations of what black metal might be, "In the Heart of the World" the vocals are at more of a low croak while the guitar take a more sonic pulse behind them. "Dies Irae" opens with more sung vocals.  It carries on like this for almost nine minutes so I can't write this off as an interlude. It reminds me of the boat song from Willy Wonka. They end strong with the ominous "Abomination Gate" .Overall, it is great to hear a black metal album where the vocals are the focal point rather than an afterthought, I will give this one a 9..