Dodsengel-Imperator
From the beginning, I had approached the 3rd
full-length by Norwegian Occult Black Metallers Dodsengel with a sense of
urgent trepidation. While I had enjoyed
earlier releases like Mirium Occultum
and Alongside Chronzon immensely,
reveling in the winding, mazelike riffs that rarely failed to transport one
into a realm of omniscient dread, the songwriting had always felt a tad
derivative for a band with such grandiose vision for their infernal
doctrine. As Dodsengel constantly strove
to distinguish themselves from the masses of black metal acolytes following the
release of Mirium Occultum, plunging
themselves deeper and deeper into less traditional waters with EP after EP, I
could not help but feel that an additional push from Below was needed to propel
them into the realms of true Orthodox triumph, alongside charred scene luminaries
such as Deathspell Omega, Watain, and Ascension. When Imperator finally surfaced upon my
metallic radar, I could not help but feel my blood boil at the thought that the
breakthrough album this band was always meant to make had possibly ascended
from the Pits of Tartarus in all its fetid glory.
After multiple
listens and subsequent internal contemplation, I am able to safely conclude that
Dodsengel have reached their vaunted potential at last, at least in part. Clocking in at 2 and ½ hours in two discs, Imperator is not an album meant for the
weekend warrior or Cro-Magnon headbanger looking for a quick blackened
fix. Indeed, I found this album an
intimidating beast to digest at the onset, and was initially befuddled at the
seeming monotony stretched over such a vast length. Gone were even semblances of the
forward-driving grooves and wicked hooks that once helped latch listeners onto
the sides of past demonic vessels.
Instead, there existed a dreamlike, astral sense of torment that tempted
the listener to their own damnation. The
ritualistic aspects of the music were more heightened than ever, proceeding
with a stately grace befitting an infernal monarch leading his slaves to the
sacrificial altar.
Indeed, listening to Imperator was more reminiscent of a
waking nightmare than a wild hellride, an experience aided by the increased
presence of synthesizers, a contribution that added a psychedelic rock presence
to the music that had only been hinted at structurally on earlier efforts. Like Pink Floyd hollowed into a vessel of the
Devil, Imperator took me deep into
emotional and contemplative chasms while my body stood fixated in petrifaction. Every additional listen revealed more
crevices along the blood-soaked walls of the temple. Over most of the experience, Kark’s vocals
rasped like the grinding of dry, crackling bones along desert sands, imbuing
the ritual with a feeling of hopeless desolation. Yet at parts of the album, they warped into
maddening high-pitched shrieks that brought to mind the raving of dementia-ridden
hierophants. Female vocals even made an
appearance, soaring like the reveries of harlots and witches over the music,
evoking a sense of ecstatic and diabolically-lustful exuberance.
While I
initially felt that Imperator lacked the immediate black-mailed fist to the gut
provided by past works, it became obvious to me as I explored the album more
that it marked a true turning point in Dodsengel’s career, in the same way that
Si Monumentum was the cornerstone in
Deathspell Omega’s that transformed them from well-composed Darkthrone-worship into
one of the most revolutionary bands to ever grace the face of the genre. The unique psychedelic presence added by the
increased use of synthesizers, coupled with a usage of archetypical
orthodox-styled riffs in unorthodox ways, have created for Dodsengel an easily
distinguishable sound that they can truly trademark as their own. Some standout tracks include Hymn to Pan, a
trance-inducing ritual with bacchanalian undertones belying an antediluvian
madness hidden beneath the veil of civility, Asphyxia, a highly emotional
affair resembling a crueler, more primal manifestation of the work of Frenchmen
Blut Aus Nord, and Upon the Beast She Rideth, a work that evoked the sensual,
yet sinister aura of Walpurgisnacht.
Yet Imperator’s greatness comes as more of a sum of its parts than in
individual moments of glory, for what the album represents is an expulsion of
every experimental and creative desire Dodsengel have only tempted us with in
the past 3 years, yet somehow taking a coherent and masterful form. With their artistic vision now clear to them,
I feel that future efforts by this band will see not only further sonic
advances, but a tightening of those remaining loose ends in their songwriting
as well. Imperator is a staggering, yet enticing work that sheds fresh blood
upon the long-stagnating Norwegian Black Metal Scene. While other bands continue to obsess over
childish clichés in nostalgic striving for past glories, Dodsengel represents
one of the chosen few who have dared to glance further into the darkness,
emerging with an exciting vision for black metal that promises even greater
aural flagellation in the coming aeons.
Rating: 8.8/10
