Review Summary: Satanas, Magnificat Satanas
And then God gave us music, it was played well and God heard that it was good. He was happy with His creation, and even happier that his followers were using music to spread His love and to create harmony within their community. But Satan was watching from his fiery abode, and thought to himself, ‘Hmm, pre-marital sex and homosexuals aren’t enough, I may be able to pull more people over to Sin by using music. Brilliant!’
So then Satan created Arkhon Infaustus.
Orthodoxyn is the fourth album from the French black/death hybrid, and it truly is the epitome of evil in music. Their sound is sludgy, dirty, invasive, brutal, and so incredibly brilliant. Everything about the album is done perfectly, and for a long time I considered giving this album a 5. I’ve decided that it’s not quite a 5, and it’s actually better in smaller doses, but there isn’t much that is wrong with this album. Arkhon Infaustus have really gone out and made an album to the best of their abilities, which in this case was a very good album.
I don’t think I was overly wowed by the technical prowess of the band at any moment on the album, but this is not to say the album has simple music. All members are proficient at their instruments, and they really gel together to create some outstanding moments on the album. Almost every song on here has sections which really sat me on my arse, and even now after 5 weeks, I am totally blown away by how heavy this album is. It just does not let up in delivering heavy riff after heavy riff, be it a slow, punishing riff that just punches its way into your mind, or riffs that are just furiously chaotic. The songs on the album do not follow any set structure which makes it an even more enjoyable listen, and each song melds into the next one without losing any of its originality. This is aided by the fact the band have put no pauses between the songs, so each song makes an extremely smooth transition into another 5-6 minutes of smashing your face into the ground and sending you straight to Hell.
To complement the dirty sound, the vocals are some of the dirtiest and most brutal I have ever heard. The vocalist, DK Deviant, has one of the most diverse ranges I have ever heard. He screams in a high pitch, he growls with a moderate tone, and he can make guttural sounds that are simply in a class of their own. Depending on the music behind him, he adopts either a black metal style or a death metal style. For example, on Le Particule de Dieu, there is slower part in which the vocals are very reminiscent of typical black metal vocals. However, elsewhere on the album, when the riffs are coming hard and fast, Deviant goes low and shows us how his intestines sound. Lyrically, the album is a whole level above both its black and death metal counterparts. They are superbly written, and are centred around the single theme of Satan. It’s mostly in English, asides from the track Le Particule de Dieu, which is in French. I don’t know about other people, but I have a thing for listening to harsh vocals in different languages, and this is no exception. Even though it is only one track, it makes the whole album better for me. The vocals on this particular song actually reminds me very much of Mirrorthrone.
I was unsure of which genre to place this band in, because Orthodoxyn takes quite a lot from both the black and death metal genres. However, I’m under the assumption that their earlier work was more black metal orientated, so I’ve put the band under black metal. The music on the album is very varied, both in terms of tempo, and sound. Obviously, there are tremelo-picked sections, but then these are contrasted with huge riffs which are either delivered in a furious manner, or thunderously slow.
A lot of people by now are probably thinking that this band is some lame Dissection clone, with a similar lyrical theme to that of Deicide. You couldn’t be more far from wrong. The thing that sets this apart from Deicide in terms of the satanic themes is that they aren’t so overly ridiculous and lame as is the case with Deicide. Asides from the fact that musically I enjoy this album over any Deicide release except for perhaps The Stench of Redemption, this album does not end up being a lame attempt at trying to sound evil. It really succeeds. I think they are somewhat similar to Dissection in this respect, because they had similar themes but are definitely not lame. And on the point of whether this is a Dissection clone, one just has to listen to the album to realise that it isn’t.
I’ve already mentioned that this album sounds very dirty and rough, but do not make the assumption that I was talking about the production. On the contrary, the production on the album is superb with everything sounding clear and smooth. It is the actual
music itself that sounds dirty and dank. This is probably the best produced black metal album I have ever listened to, and it actually is a huge benefit because the album would not sound as heavy as it does if the production was not up to the standard that it is.
The final point I’d like to make about this great album, is the artwork. Simple, bland, but with some interesting and intricate pictures, it’s definitely an alluring cover for an album. If I had seen it randomly and had not actually been looking for it, I do not doubt that it would have caught my eye.
In conclusion, this is definitely not an album to be missed. I’d recommend it to anybody who likes black metal, or death metal, or metal in general, so basically everybody, because if you don’t listen to metal then you don’t exist. Anyway, yes, this is highly recommended.
