Deathspell Omega
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Deathspell Omega | |
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| Origin | Poitiers, France |
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| Years active | 1998–present |
| Labels | Norma Evangelium Diaboli Northern Heritage End All Life Season of Mist |
Deathspell Omega is a French black metal band formed in 1998 in Poitiers. The group is an anonymous collective that has never confirmed the identity of any of its members.
Their lyrical content often deals with metaphysical Satanism,[1] and the philosophies of Bataille[1][2] and Hegel.[3]
From 2004 to 2010, the band released a trilogy of concept albums — Si monvmentvm reqvires, circvmspice, Fas – Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum and Paracletus – which focus on the theological aspects of God and Satan. With the band's seventh album The Furnaces of Palingenesia (2019), there was a shift in lyrical focus to anti-authoritarian political themes.[4]
The band's eighth and most recent album, The Long Defeat, was released on 23 March 2022. The band described the album as " the first emanation of the third era of Deathspell Omega".[5]
Initially, Deathspell Omega produced raw, traditional black metal akin to Darkthrone's Transilvanian Hunger. However, their 2004 release, Si monvmentvm reqvires, circvmspice, marked a change to a more technical, experimental, and well-recorded sound with musical influences including Russian Orthodox chanting and choral music.[6]
The band's work after Si monvmentvm reqvires, circvmspice was more experimental and technical, with their output in 2005—Kénôse, "Mass Grave Aesthetics" and "Diabolus absconditus"—totaling nearly eighty minutes in length, longer than Si monvmentvm reqvires, circvmspice. The second volume of the band's trilogy, Fas – Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum, was released on 16 July 2007, outside the United States, and the following day within the United States.[7][8] The band released another EP in January 2009, entitled Veritas Diaboli Manet in Aeternum: Chaining the Katechon. The final album in the trilogy, Paracletus, was released by Norma Evangelium Diaboli and Season of Mist on 9 November 2010.[9] The band's final work related to the trilogy,[10] an EP titled Drought, was released on 22 June 2012.
Deathspell Omega's sixth full-length album, The Synarchy of Molten Bones, was made available early to download and stream on 31 October 2016[11][12] with a full physical release on 8 November.[13][14]
The band's seventh full-length album, The Furnaces of Palingenesia, was released on 24 May 2019. It is presented as a manifesto from a dictator speaking for a political faction referred to as "the Order"; it is explicitly intended to deconstruct authoritarian regimes of both the left and the right. The band recorded the album live in a studio using analogue gear, and it was mastered more quietly than most of the band's preceding material, also reflecting a shift in production approach.[4]
Without naming any of their members directly, the band also claimed there was an ideological rift within the band, noting: "A minority of the collective's contributors – shall we say, parts of the second circle – who've been invited to partake because of their incredible talents as musicians are involved with earthly politics, but stand on completely opposite ends of the political spectrum and are therefore irreconcilable political foes. Were it not for dialogue on the grounds of transgressive art, they'd be shooting each other. That tension is what interests us." They also state that the music and lyrics were authored by the "French core of the collective".[4] This clarification was made in the wake of backlash against Deathspell Omega due to their longtime collaboration with Finnish musician Mikko Aspa, who has released National Socialist black metal music under the solo project Clandestine Blaze and has ties to RAC acts.
There is little to no concrete public information about Deathspell Omega's lineup. They do not have any official website, social media platform or promotional photos, have never performed live and do not list credits in their releases. Early interviews were deeply critical of the black metal scene,[15][16] and the last interview they agreed to until 2019 was conducted in 2004 by their North American label The Ajna Offensive, with questions and answers sent through the band's exclusive label, Norma Evangelium Diaboli, to preserve their anonymity.[1]
Finnish musician Mikko Aspa is the band's current vocalist since 2012.[1][17] Hirilorn vocalist Shaxul stated that he was Deathspell Omega's vocalist until 2002, and has gone on record as leaving due to displeasure with the band's shift in themes.[18] In a 2014 interview discussing the most underrated guitarists in metal, Gorguts vocalist Luc Lemay named Christian Bouché as Deathspell Omega's guitarist, also giving his pseudonym Hasjarl.[19]
The band contains a drummer, with a band member confirming that the only recordings to use a drum machine were the first four songs on the debut album Infernal Battles.[4]
In a 2018 interview with Loudwire, Tobias Forge, lead singer of the band Ghost, stated that the French synthwave artist Carpenter Brut (Franck Hueso) was Deathspell Omega's producer.[20]
