Death's Design - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

As a fan of the first three Diabolical Masquerade albums waiting for Blakkheim to finally unleash some inevitable masterpiece, I admit that I found and continue to find Death's Design an obnoxious chore, even if it ultimately has enough to offer that I'll spin it infrequently. At 61 tracks, split into 20 'movements' over just 43 minutes, and a pseudo-score to some nonexistent horror film, one could argue it's the most ambitious thing he's ever produced with this project, and from a technical angle I don't know that I'd disagree. However, the means of its presentation in so many little snippets of what might be better fleshed out tracks, this comes across to me like a dumping ground for all the ideas he couldn't work into any proper successors to the great 1998 album Nightwork.

That's probably not the case, and perhaps this is all planned out exactly like it is, but considering how the different sections of the album might be presumed to stay thematically consistent, a lot of the individual pieces feel jarring and don't flow well as a whole. It's a shame, because the riffing here is fucking fantastic, it just never lasts long enough, and how he integrates the soundtrack components, acoustics, clean and harsh vocals, and symphonics are seamless...just across such short spaces. It doesn't much surprise me that Dan Swanö had a lot to do with this record, because he'd also later put out his Crimson II record for Edge of Sanity which was more of a solo thing, and suffers from a lot of the same issues I had with this...snippets of ideas that deserved far more, generally less than a minute long, and while the flow isn't terrible between them, it just lacks the impact these good riffs would have in full tracks. It certainly sounds like one of his more mature recordings of that time, super clear across all the varied instrumentation, accessible but still capturing a punch to the lower guitars, and the evil rasps of Blakkheim which are admittedly formidably throughout this.

You'll even hear Dan's clean vocals, which are unmistakable if you've heard his myriad other projects. There are a few moments where the drum programming gets a little too obvious and dull, and some ill choices like the clean vocal in "The Inverted Dream: No Sleep in Peace" which I can't quite place, but sounds like the melody is ripped off from a James Bond theme or sci-fi film or something. The roots are still cinematic black metal, but Diabolical Masquerade reaches further away from the structures of Ravendusk in My Heart of The Phantom Lodge. The individual tracks can't reach the creepy majesty and atmosphere of "Astray Within the Coffinwood Mill" because they're never given the space to, and there are plenty of tunes like "Spinning Back the Clocks", "A Bad Case of Nerves" or a few dozen more which could have been developed into stunning evolutions upon the Nightwork style. Had this been condensed together, with a lot of the scraps tossed out and the better riffs expanded into full length tunes, it would easily have been the most progressive and symphonic stuff Blakkheim had put out here, itself a natural successor to the first three albums, but the fragmentation just doesn't work for me.

That goes even deeper into the themes...obviously they cover such a vast array of supernatural and Gothic subjects and images that there's no way this was the real soundtrack to anything, and there too I feel like it comes across as a big jumbled mess of ideas. So many great song titles, too, like "Soaring Over Dead Rooms", "A Hurricane of Rotten Air", "The Remains of Galactic Expulsions", as if Anders was just emptying out a notebook of stuff he had lying around (kind of like the songs themselves). I realize the guy was busy with his other, more successful bands like Katatonia or Bloodbath and this one had to take a back seat, but I can't help but feel a little spurned that this was where it all ended, and in over two decades we haven't heard a peep. It just doesn't seem like a strong note to end off on, and I realize I'm in the minority as some seem to hold this up as a bastion of progressive black metal genius, which I simply cannot agree with as the presentation is so frustrating, even when I play it all straight through and try to blend the components into my imagination as a cohesive whole.

Now, having voiced these complaints, I will say that there is enough ear candy to explore here that I'll still give it a pass. A positive. I try and think of it like the little samples you get on a pre-programmed keyboard or some recording software...short, catchy, showing the range and potential of the technology but not the depth of emotion and composition. Bite-sized morbid bliss, like a grind album of fractured horror metal where you just wish this or that riff would repeat or transform into something more explosive and memorable. It's just all over the place, and at least a few dozen of the tracks could be tossed out and I would never know the difference. I wanted more of what I so enjoyed about the first three albums, and I get it, just in such tiny spurts that the greatness is forever evaded. Once every couple Halloweens, I might loop a few tracks from this, but it's one of the most 'could have been' albums in my entire collection. Blakkheim's Woolgathering Exit From A Fascinating And Underrated Band Which Best Manifest His Individual Personality. Cue the curtain.

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The side project of Katatonia guitarist Anders Nyström, Diabolical Masquerade would take a much different direction than the man's flagship band. Whereas Nyström's may be most widely associated with doom metal or depressive rock, Diabolical Masquerade goes for a theatrical take on avant-garde black metal. Culminating in the project's final record, it is a shame that Diabolical Masquerade disbanded before a fifth release, but it is difficult to imagine a greater swansong from the band than this. With a host of classical musicians and guest artists taking part in 'Death's Design', Diabolical Masquerade has fashioned an album here that is every bit as ambitious as the other great albums in progressive metal. Self-styled as the soundtrack to some non-existent horror film, 'Death's Design' is a massive journey, every bit as cinematic as it is made out to be.

Although 'Death's Design' is split into a ridiculous amount of tracks, it is essentially one sprawling epic, much in the way of Edge Of Sanity's classic 'Crimson'. Think the black metal aspects of a band like Emperor fused with Opeth's melodic sensibilities, with the added vastness of a string section to give Diabolical Masquerade even more firepower. The first thing that arguably stands out about the record is the sheer amount of tracks it has, and this unnecessarily indulgent separation of what is otherwise a running piece of music may be the album's greatest flaw. With some tracks only being six seconds long, the sheer wonder and bewilderment as to why Blakkheim would have chopped up his masterpiece so haphazardly. From the perspective of listening to 'Death's Design' as a start-to-finish experience however, this does not affect the enjoyment, and it ultimately the only way one can go about listening to the record.

In terms of mood, things are very dark, but in a fairly different way than the sort of introspective darkness that Anders' band Katatonia conveys. Instead, the dark mood here is foreboding and very ominous; perfect for whatever imaginary film that this album could score. The entire album is tied together by a narrative and recurring musical themes; much like Edge Of Sanity's 'Crimson', once again. Most of the time, these ideas flow seamlessly from one another, each bringing a new dimension of fear or beauty to the album. Sometimes though, it does feel like Blakkheim and company forgot to add a transition here and there, or that some of the existing transitions could have been polished to lubricate the flow of the music. The musical ideas are almost constantly impressive however, so it is fairly difficult to let these minor flaws get in the way of the enjoyment.

Diabolical Masquerade has blown me away with this masterpiece of an album. Expect great things from this.

Divided into 61 individual tracks and 20 different movements, how could you not be interested already? The 20 movements are more the actual start and end points for songs, while each individual track divides seperate parts of the song. A little unnessasary, but it makes things interesting. At the same time, I'd like to think of the entire album as one huge song, it flows very well together and uses the same themes over a few times for a truly epic feeling.

This "soundtrack" is assembled by many different artists. Primarily Blakkheim and Diabolical Masquerade. With the musical genious Dan Swanö composing, mixing, editing, and contributing a few solos here and there, how could the album not be amazing. Also there is a quartet from Estonia providing the orchestrations and many other musical guests.

The song styles and feelings can range from brutal, harsh, majestic, triumphant, victorious, nightmarish, groovy, atmosperic, bizarre, blissful, etc... and the music styles can range from black metal, prog metal, symphonic, electronic, ambient, industrial, and more.

Instrumentation includes: black metal vocals, a few clean vocals, clean/distorted electric and acoustic guitars, ambiences, percussion including some interesting "voodoo" style drumming, keyboards, bass, violins, violas, cellos, pianos, and other electronic elements.

The diverse mix of all these genres melded together is outrageous. One second you'll be listening to the most harsh black metal, then it will suddenly switch to captivating orchistrations that sound straight out of a suspenseful, eerie scene from any movie. Also sometimes all these elements are just jumbled on top of each other. As incoherent as that may sound, the album really does flow beautifully and doesn't sound rediculous or messy.

My favorite movements are 5th (one song, "spinning back the clocks" which contains very majestic music and some clean singing, and freaky lyrics); 7th, 9th (which is an all-orchistrated mini-masterpiece in itself); 10th, 11th, and 12th. Keep in mind these are not track numbers, but sections that contiain 3-6 different tracks, except the 5th (and some others)

With top notch production and amazing diversity this must be one of the most original, addicting, and unique metal albums ever recorded. R.I.P. Diabolical Masqerade, I wish they would have made at least one more album.

I love this album and never get tired of it because it has a taste of everything. It's like a party tray with a variety of different kinds of snacks, each with their own flavor and just the right amount.

The variety I am speaking of in this album is the levels of harmonies and extreme black metal throughout the 61 tracks of short tid bits of musical delight. You don't have too much of anything. The right amount of heavyiness and melody is spread out from begining to end. There's experimental noise, jazzy or melodic solos, upbeat rock, dark atmospheric metal, haunting melodies that will leave you breathless, and black metal.

At times, the album sounds like straight up horror movie suspense music, the kind you hear in a movie where the zombies or whatever are approaching and at others could be a beautiful medley, the kind you hear when the hero of a movie saves the day or comes to the rescue. The singing is mostly blood curdling vocals. Dan Swano's voice sometimes comes up in some tracks, it's beautiful and eerie at the same time, kind of like a Disney movie ballad from hell. The album is unique and perfect in it's own way with the oddly timed tracks, you don't get sick of anything cause everything is divided precisley short, the longest track is about two minutes.

The music sounds like it came out of a movie because, if you didn't know yet, it is an actual soundtrack to a film that unfortunatley was cancelled in production due to another movie with the same concept coming out, that movie was Final Destination, which you could say "stole" the whole concept of "death's design". The exact words, "death's design" were said in Final Destination, coincidence or blatant rip off, you be the judge.

I really wished the movie Death's Desgin was made, each track on this brilliant album was planned to be synchronized with each movie scene as the film would progress, hence the different moods and atmospheres the music creates to enhace the visual aspects you would view. Good thing the album was still made regardless of the movie never seeing the light of day......for now. The fate of the movie is still up in the air, but not sure if the album will still be used for it.

If you love this album, I'm sure you'll also like Sigh. They play a similar experimental black metal. Try listening to Sigh's Imagianry Sonicsacpe album if you haven't already. The style of music is quite similar to this. Dark at times then very beautiful and epic the next.

Word of notice- when hearing to this album one must give his full to the tusk of listening. This is NOT music to headbang for, NOT a music to mosh for, NOT a jogging music, NOT a weight lifting music.
What is it then?
An amazing soundtrack to the movie Death's Design (which never seen the light of day), this album paints us events of an unknown horror (there are no lyrics to be found in the album ot on the net), it's doing so by taking a basis of black metal (highlighted by Blackheim's guitar playing and chilling screeching vocals) and adding upon it cosmic kybords (actually done right, and not overbearing, by Dan Swano), Movie Samples (which make me wish the movie came out) and a string Quartet (which, in my humble opinion, works much better then the orchestration of Haggard and Therion). The band also like to throw around Jazzy parts (again, never in an overbearing fashion) and clean vocals to break the Extreme Metal routine.
So why not a 100 for this amazing piece of soundscape?
It gets tiring after a while- no way you can listen to this one more the once a week without having it's quality dropping before your ears.
But give it a chance- go home, close the dors, windows, phones, lights, everything else that might bother you and give this album a spin.