The Absence of Light

Portugal is becoming quite a hotbed of black metal these days. "The Abscence of Light" (sic) is an early demo release by the one-man band Ars Diavoli (whose name is Latin for "art of the devil"). It's a short recording of some 20 minutes and the overall impression I have is of a very sickly music seething with evil hatred against the world. The acid tremolo guitars spew caustic poison continuously and the crabby vocals reveal a hostile misanthropic mind. A stuttering tone adds to the feverish if rather slow nature to the music. To achieve sustained hatred this intense and excruciating, evil must brew steadily and at its own snail-like pace, all the better for the burning fumes to rise and overwhelm one's senses.

The songs tend to be repetitive and glacial in pace, and the first three of the four are dominated by AD man Vilkacis' sandpaper raw and rasping voice. There's not a great deal of variation from one song to the next. Tension remains at more or less the same level throughout each track and into the next. Perhaps the best thing that can be said about most songs here is the atmosphere they create and the band's sound: the guitar tones being very distorted, the sound they produce is a harsh, bleached acid quivering noise, very sick and bubbling with extreme malice. The percussion is not remarkable but with the emphasis on the creation of a particular enervated and painful mood, strong drumming is perhaps unnecessary. With that annoying gas stutter drone in the background and a washed-out production, the whole recording has an unhealthy febrile ambience.

The outro track "Horizontes Perdidos" is an all-ambient affair: quiet, clean in sound, utterly black and with a mood that may be either despairing or just plain creepy, it presents another side of Ars Diavoli's range and capability.

This demo may be a rather modest beginning but the elements for a very individual style of agonising depressive suicidal black metal already exist.

Four hopelessly morose offerings of deeply melancholic Portuguese black metal. The guitar work is quite melodic, though so awash with filthy distortion that alongside the viciously punishing drums and vocals, a high level of intensity is maintained throughout these 22 minutes. The broad, full guitar sound is drenched in delay, adding to the overall mysterious aura. A slow to mid-paced funereal tempo suits the filthy atmosphere of this rancidly decrepit release perfectly.