SHAARIMOTH – Devildom

vote
7.5

• Bands:
  SHAARIMOTH
• Duration: 00:42:03
• Available from: 10/31/2024
• Label:

• World Terror Committee

Streaming not yet available

For the Norwegians Shaarimoth, discussing diabolical sounds is much more than a cliché: it is a philosophical question, a lifestyle, belonging to a kind of belief that takes its best form precisely in the music played.
Seven years after the second album “Temple Of The Adversarial Fire” and three years after the split “SamaeLilith: A Conjunction Of The Fireborn”, officiated together with Thy Darkened Shade, Inconcessus Lux Lucis and Amestigon, the Nordic team is among us again and it does so without betraying the guideline of previous works, that of a jagged death/black metal, with arcane semblance and atmosphere, sharp, stentorian and with more than a few impulses towards theatricality. Pervaded by restlessness, inclined to angry and burning attacks, as well as capable of abandoning himself to unusual movements, dazzling changes of pace, spreading out over rather long durations, or closing himself in a curl in concise and very ferocious assaults.
The innate sense of grandeur and exaltation of the evil is the underlying theme of the album, with telluric and off-putting movements, built starting from cavernous sounds and wrapped in a patina of unhealthy mysticism. What catches the ear as the first positively distinctive element is the vocal apparatus: it seems to hear the Bølzers, especially those of “Hero”, for the feral, spirited and at the same time very warm and heartfelt interpretation.
In this case, the epic nature of the Swiss is contrasted with a multifaceted blasphemous nature, with schizoid barking that oscillates between dazed invocations and immoderate aggression. This is relevant to nervous structures, which eschew linearity and are marked by many small incisions, stops and starts; frenzy and reasoning are interspersed without there being a precise pattern to direct the events, thus making listening exciting and full of surprises.
Initially, this way of proceeding might sound inconsistent and a little long-winded, but as happened in “Temple Of The Adversarial Fire” you don't stumble or lose focus. In fact, a twisted and tormented piece like “Blood Covenant” quickly hits the mark, poised between the evolved damnation of recent days – mentioning the companions of the previous split, Thy Darkened Shade and Amestigon, is a must – and a purely old school death metal.
We like the martial rhythms that dominate in some tracks (such as “The Voiceless Call”), marking a certain search for rigor, for an expressive form with a serious and hostile air at all costs.
Shaarimoth then love to vent their impetus in very clear and obsessive satanic invocations, as in the sacred chorus of “Blade Of Malediction”, accompanying a song of sparkling speed, possessed of a particularly dense and oppressive aura of evil. Here and in the following “The Impulse Of Rebellion” they seem to approach the cerebral invectives of groups like Grave Miasma and Lvcifyre, through an equally frenetic and slightly more instinctive action, from the beginnings of extreme metal.
Although “Devildom” is not exactly music that is easy to assimilate, the Norwegians, among many twisted and angry visions, keep the bar straight towards an approach to the material that does not deny metal in its primordial form. In short, the idea of ​​contemptuous, carnal and cutting aggression remains at the center of the discussion, making a subject more malleable than usual which other interpreters render in a more grim and reluctant way to be understood.
“Devildom” reconfirms the artistic caliber of the group: although it does not leave its previously well-defined sound niche, the album will be able to satisfy those who are perpetually hungry for extreme traditional forms, but personal in the way of exploring darkness and malevolence, both the more obvious one, than the more shadowy and subtle one.