Orgia Daemonicum

By the mid-2000s, all the major branches of metal’s family tree were drooping, weighted with creative fatigue. As the newest offshoot to establish itself, extreme metal was very much under the gaze of the mainstream. Albums were becoming larger, both in length but also texturally, with layers of complexity and orchestration being applied in ways not always beneficial to the music itself. This was in part a symptom of major label backing, but also a function of a search for maturity. Extreme metal was no longer the province of youth alone. Many of the artists at the heart of extreme metal were approaching middle age, and attempting to understand what this music could look like in a more mature setting.

Thou art Lord are a Hellenic black metal supergroup of sorts, famed for terrible album covers and being not quite as good as the chief projects of its mixed clientele. Well ok, that’s not entirely fair, but for whatever quality material one can find in traversing their discography, it is usually spaced out across plenty of colour by numbers Greek black metal. 2005’s ‘Orgia Daemonicum’ is as good a place as any to insert ourselves into their body of the work. The production aims for a homespun aesthetic. Whilst it still carries the depth and clarity required to present the symphonic leanings of this outfit, the overall impression is very much of a garage band hammering away at melodic blackened thrash with some more ethereal leanings shoehorned in to anchor this raw energy.

The drums are raw and tinny in a premediated way. The guitar tone is relatively straightforward, lending itself to the dual demands of blunt thrash riffs contrasted with elegant harmonic leanings. Sakis unmistakable bark provides a suitably melodramatic guide through this romp of Hellenic metal, veering from passionate outbursts to near spoken word narration. Keyboards make a modest appearance, usually by way of complimenting the sweepingly epic passages in the form of strings and horns.

And this latter point is really where we must begin in describing the music itself. In many ways ‘Orgia Daemonicum’ presages the style that Rotting Christ would adopt in the 2010s. Part melodic thrash, sometimes reduced to the most basic of two chord riffs, making use of the percussive aspects of guitar playing more than the melodic. The riffs are repetitive, basic, and largely atonal. But they regularly break out into flowing melodic passages of tremolo picked riffs and soaring keyboards. The drums follow in this duality of purpose by switching from tight blast-beats and hammering double bass to a swaying, flowing rhythmic foundation that allows the music to reach for the sky.

Although this contrast has its desired effect on the listener on first or second listen, there is no staying power to this formula, precisely because it is a formula with limited mileage. The individual components are few in number, their development limited and predictable, meaning that the thrill of contrast wears thin upon repetition. There is an attempt to break this up, such as the mid paced track ‘He the Great Worm’, which again would be very much at home on a latter-day Rotting Christ album. But again, there are essentially two key elements to the piece, with little in the way of journey or motion, leaving nothing but a binary contrast. It’s as if Thou art Lord have left themselves only two creative levers to pull, leaving their avenues for expression limited and unfulfilling, regardless of the potential that is present in each atomised moment.

Originally published at Hate Meditations

Orgia Daemonicum is a somewhat different beast than the previous Thou Art Lord albums, in not necessarily for a change in genre, then for the slightly more organic production aesthetics. They use this punchy, springy guitar tone here that gives the album more of a black/thrash aesthetic than the more blustering, symphonic theatrics of Eosforos or Apollyon. Strangely enough, this is also the album that reminds me of Sakis Tolis' other, more prominent band, Rotting Christ. If you took Rotting Christ and condensed them into a more thuggish, thrashing beast, it might turn out quite like what I'm hearing on this.

Not that the little eccentricities of this duo's past have entirely abandoned their modus operandi, but they all feel more subdued, like subtle guitars layered in for ambiance in straight, chugging black thrashers like "An Apparition of Vengeance". There are a number of the tracks that use a lot of the familiar Rotting Christ counter-melodies off the straight, hammering rhythm guitar, such as "Hecate Unveiled", "Necromantic", "The Gnostic Code". But the Greeks also branch out a bit, with a slower, ritual chuggernaut in "The Royal Invocation of Apophis" or some straight shots of eerie melodic death in the title track. At best, though, the band will break into this great, ripping thrash riff reminiscent of Slayer ("He, the Great Worm") and really bind together the wider dynamic range into a fit of sheer headbanging rage.

Almost as if to mirror their stylistic deviation here, they include a cover of Onslaught's "Power from Hell", off the album of the same name. Actually sounds quite good with Magus Wampyr's charismastic gutturals, and once more I have to point out that I love the guitar tone, not to mention the inflections of atmosphere they hurl under the riffs with some synthesizer/choirs. This all helps top off what I might consider the most 'fun' of Thou Art Lord's efforts, even if I enjoy the music from all its predecessors more. It's clear that the band did not wish to merely repeat itself, and so the change is welcome, but there's just not much food for thought here. Tense, coiled fists to the face without catchy enough notation to resonate for long.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Thou Art Lord is as you may know a black metal band with some of the most famous "stars" of the Greek metal scene, and you can see that with their two main members like Sakis the vocalist of Rotting Christ and Magus the vocalist of Necromantia.

Now the review: Orgia Daemonicum is the latest effort from the Greek black metal kings, widely known for their main bands. This album shows that there is still plenty of good metal out there, and that the scene still alive. One of the most interesting things about this album is the sound quality. It's raw but at the same time it manages to sound clear, and the listener won't have problems because every instrument can be heard.

Another interesting thing about this album are the lyrics. The lyrics are written in a Satanist way (Which is good) and sometimes it makes the listener feel like they're in the middle of a ritual calling for Lucifer, like in the song "Royal Invocation of Apophis". The guitar work is outstanding and these guys never seem to run out of riffs and it's also needless to say that these riffs are catchy as hell. The drumming in this album is totally kick ass. Akis did a wonderful job on the drums. Every song is well played, and it's not only blast beats like many black metal bands do most of the time. Last but not least is the cover of Onslaught's Power from Hell; this is the kind of cover that in my opinion metal bands should be doing covering some awful pop bands.