A couple of years ago I wrote several extensive reviews of various albums, and the review below remains my favorite of the bunch. Throughout my freshman year in college, this band was essentially my favorite band of all time. The album title is a reference to the Latin Vulgate, meaning "By divine law, go, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"
Deathspell Omega is a black metal band often associated with the orthodox black metal movement and the legendary Norma Evangelium Diaboli label; however, with the release of Fas – Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum, labeling Deathspell Omega as merely another black metal band in the vein of Anteaus or Katharsis discredits the band’s astounding abilities and creativity. This release not only defies the standards typical of black metal but also is one of the most interesting musical pieces ever heard by these ears.
Fas has an entirely unique sound unlike anything I’ve ever heard; however, if one were to attempt to draw comparisons, the jarring rhythms of Gorguts’ Obscura, the dissonant arpeggios of The Chasm, the eerie ambient sections from Blut Aus Nord’s The Work Which Transforms God, and the grindcore-esque blasting and aggression of Blasphemy all come to mind. The metal portions of the music are essentially comprised of the most dissonant chord progressions one can imagine, all shrouded under noisy blast beats and the occasional wild guitar solo. Due to both the speed, dissonance, and complexity of the guitar work and the production, any of the four main compositions of Fas would be a nightmare to tab. Indeed, I am sometimes awed that the album is played by humans. As far as the drums are concerned they are mixed so loudly that they could be considered the album’s chief flaw, but I find that the drums only enhance the album’s dark mystique by making the guitar work even more difficult to discern.
The album is not entirely comprised of these chaotic sections, but rather these blasting parts are tastefully contrasted with both disturbing choral sections and eerie segments of multi-tracked guitars, drenched in reverb. For instance, each “song” ends in about a minute of quiet ambience made up of mad choirs and creepily out-of-tune pianos, all building suspense for the utter chaos of the album’s heavier sections. In addition, the compositions contain dissonant, for lack of a better word, “mellow” sections as seen in “Obombration”, the interlude of “Bread of Bitterness”, or the intro of “The Repellent Scars of Abandon & Election” that include multiple tracks of droning guitars and the same disturbing out-of-tune piano.
While Fas deviates from Deathspell Omega’s past works with far more chaotic guitar work, more eerie atmospheric sections, and the addition of guitar solos, a few elements remain consistent with recent works such as “Diabolus Absconditus”. Mikko Aspa uses the same evil growl, and the lyrics are in a similar vein to other works, looking more like the insane musings of a theologian than the lyrics of a black metal band.
What is most intriguing about Fas is not any one of these elements alone but rather the effect that all of these elements have on the patient listener. The metal sections of each composition are so difficult to comprehend and the ambient sections are so dense and eerie that the album can only be fully digested, if ever, after many listens. While some would consider the sheer chaos of Fas to be a flaw, it makes the album of a more interesting listen, as the listener must attempt to find some order out of the chaos. Having listened to the album fifty times or so myself, I still find new nuances amidst the chaos, making Fas – Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum, one of the most rewarding listens of my musical collection.
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