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Avichi > The Divine Tragedy > Reviews
Avichi - The Divine Tragedy

Way Better Than Nachtmystium - 92%

winterheathen, May 21st, 2008

Its not often that a band forms one year then puts out an amazing record the very next year without offering any demos, but thats exactly what Avichi has done. For whatever reason, Aamonael left his former band, Nachtmystium, and created this project, where he performs everything except drums. Possibly it was because he was unhappy with the direction Nachtmystium was going? Anyway, thats not important, what is important is that it didn't take him much time to create six songs full of mystery and hatred.

After the unnecessary intro (which is entitled Entrance To God, though it could be titled Intro), things really get going with Purification within the Eighth Sphere, the best song on the disc. The guitars create an uneasy and evil atmosphere and soon the vocals chime in. Aamonael has stated in an interview that he wasn't that interested in singing until one month before The Divine Tragedy was recorded! That's an astounding fact to me, as his harsh growl is one of the most impressive things about the album.

Many of the songs have the same sound to them, which sometimes gives the impression that your listening to one long track, the exceptions being the two instrumentals, Prayer For Release and Aeonic Disintegration, which are a bit mellower but very repetitive. That isn't the only flaw here, the final song is nothing more than a replica of the intro, but longer, and therefore even more dull. If you exclude those minor annoyances, your left with one hell of an evil, hateful black metal album, way better than anything Nachtmystium has ever done!

As a final note, I hope this isn't the first and last time Avichi unleashes an album. I say this because Aamonael's fine label, Numen Malevolum Barathri, the label on which this was released, has unfortunately and untimely closed its doors. Somebody like Southern Lord would be wise to pick this band up.

Amen to this - 94%

Baal_Graphics, February 24th, 2007

This is the first release by Avich, and they directly come with a masterpiece, instead of several promotional demos with crappy sound. Avichi is certainly a very promising band, armed with a high intellect, and great musical skills. There is no band like Avichi.

Several elements make Avichi so unique. Avichi isn't the first band dealing with occultism, but atleast Aamonael knows what he's talking about. I'm tired of all the Black Metal bands declaring war to the christians, yet there are no actions (with exception of a sellected few bands). It's easy to create an evil sounding lyric, but it's not easy to make it worthy aswell. Avichi's lyrics contain enough symboly and obscure terms to make you think about it, and I think that this is exactly what lyrics should do. After all, lyrics are an instrument of propaganda. Avichi takes religious elements as a core, and covers it with layers of dark vocabulary until a hateful, (anti-)religious and obscure entity results. Nothing simple and laughable like "We rape christians. Hail Satan" to find here.

Avichi also secludes itself sound-wise. Fast guitar riffs and up-tempo drumwork gives the sound an agressive feel, which certainly results in a great, dark and hateful atmosphere in combination with the lyrics. The vocals are not like any other Black Metal band I've heard, and I have been in the scene for quite some years, so that should say enough. The vocals are low, a bit raw, and very intense. A supernatural being vomits hell over the earth, and the sun will never shine again.

The only element that prevented me from giving 100 points for this release, is that the songs are a bit monotonous. Certainly not boring at all though, but perhaps there could be a bit more variation in the songs. The production of the music is absolutely great though, so if Avichi just puts a bit more variation in the upcoming release, I think it's very difficult to beat that. I concider this release the best of 2007, so far.

Amen.