Review Summary: The Metaphysical Trilogy - Pt. I
After two fairly run of the mill straight forward black metal albums and the departure of the previous lead vocalist Shaxul and the arrival of the replacement Mikko Aspa, France's D.O. did a complete redo on their sound, evolving from the not to impressive sound of "Infernal Battles" and "Inquisitors of Satan" to a more creative and progressive style of black metal. This shift in style to a more detailed and well thought out structure lead to this album being praised as this masterwork of "intelligent music" amongst critics in the metal community and the first full length record to showcase this artistic evolution was 2004's "Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice", the first in a trilogy of albums detailing the relationship between God, man and Satan. "C.M.R.,C" detailing (and worshiping) the last of that trio, the lord of darkness himself. This devil worship theme is about the farthest thing from new when it comes to black metal, but D.O., who's band members are confirmed theistic Satanists, does it in a more mature way, as this is showcased as an intelligent expression of one's faith rather than the typical reason of being offensive and "rebelious". Of course, this aspect of theistic Satanism that the band members so strongly profess has come under attack by a small percentage of the black metal community as, because they are worshiping Satan on a metaphysical level, it is technically making them an Evangelical Christian band, as they are acknowledging the existence of Satan and therefor, in turn, also acknowledging the existence of the Judeo-Christian God. This is due to the ignorant viewpoint that any belief of any kind of God or some other higher power somehow makes you an intolerant, dogmatically religious, submissive, by the good book zealot (any Theology class will completely refute this) therefor technically, by such logic, classifying D.O. as a Christian black metal (AKA unblack metal, AKA white metal) band. Now I'm not a religious person and I'm not sh!tting on people's disbelief here, but this of course is just illogical and black and white thinking brought about by Atheist fanaticism and is just a small percentage of people who will reject it for that reason and should not be paid any attention to.
One thing that is very prevalent about this record is the album's Cathedral like vibe, meaning that the band puts together this album in such a way to essentially feel like an anti-Church unholy mass and something I consider one of this album's main strong points. This "churchy" quasai-religious vibe is convayed more or less in various aspects of the sound, both musically and lyrically, such as the heavy use of Gregorian choir, like the distorted sound bites on "First Prayer" and this very beautiful and bleak five minute section of Gregorian choir on "Carnel Malefactor", song titles (Sola Fide, Jubilate Deo, etc) being named after Christian chants and prayers and lyrical subjects generally being about Catholic mass forms of worship but all in the name of Satan, such as the song "Drink the Devil's Blood" being about Eucharistic unholy communion. This theme is one of the more interesting aspects of the album as the idea of taking Catholic traditions and turning them into Satanic rituals that (please forgive me if I'm wrong) is not something I see too many bands do. But the constant use of choir is something that I find particularly great about this album as its composition and adds a level of depth to the music making more varied and interesting to listen to and, as another reviewer noted, does give off the impression of being in a large scale cathedral. And even though its used pretty sparingly, when the choir that does come up, it adds so much and feels necessary to this bleak and very, very dark emotional feel that the band was going for. This kind of heavy atmosphere is created very well, giving off a sickly and at its more ambient sections, very eerie feeling that makes it a bit unsettling, as taking something that supposed to be hopeful and fulfilling for people and making it a channel for darkness and evil is an interesting way to go about it. As it always seems that depravity and wickedness seem to be at their most disturbing when mimicking innocence and/or purity.
The instrumental work is very good overall, but is flawed by some things. One of its strong points is the guitar and drum work and how viceral and blackened the riffs feel, yet have a degree of thought and complexity that keep them interesting to listen to and not just suffering from a black metal pitfall of taking one riff and replaying over and over again for an entire song. This thoughtful technicality shines yet still allows itself to be chaotic and blood pumping. Most of them have a great flow to them and feel very blackened and add to the atmosphere. Especially when the songs slow down to these more moody and atmospheric sections, mainly with these interlude tracks called "Prayers". Take for example the album opener "First Prayer". It plays this slow, downbeat guitar riff that slowly gets a bit heavier and the drums become a little more apparent, building tension and slowly easing into itself, before suddenly stopping about halfway through to leave way from this odd sounding recording of a riff that's being played in reverse. And behind all of this is this cracking and slightly distorted recording of a Gregorian chant that's meant to signify the opening of the "church ceremony" of the album. This perfectly lays the groundwork to open up what the listener is about to experience in the black atmosphere and vibe of the record. But with that being said, there are times on this album that fall short and don't feel quite as thought provoking or interesting to listen. There are a few tracks that drone on without doing much and instead feel very monotonous, tedious, they lack creativity and just in general lack the intricacy of the rest of the Tracklist. Such tracks as "Odium Nostrum" or "Drink the Devil's Blood" are more or less this flurry of very rabid instrumentation, but without much substance, without much variety or artistic sense and without much likablity as in they're very fast but don't have a lot going on technically and feel very loud and in your face but not very memorable or interesting.
Another aspect about the music that I have a somewhat mixed opinion on are the vocals. Now aesthetically, they sound very good. Mikko Aspa has a fairly unique style of this very throaty, kind of raspy low high growling that sound very sickly and a bit tortured and fit very well with the rest of the music, but at the same time, like some other aspects of the music, they're a bit monotonous. They rarely, if ever change in tone or pitch and pretty much stay exactly the same in many regards throughout the entire album, lacking variety and the sense of progression that most of the music has.
One other issue this album has is with its length, and for the content here, the album is just a bit too long. Clocking in at around an hour and seventeen minutes, because of the complexity and intricacy of the music, its long length makes the album feel a bit long winded and overall larger than it needed to be. Album lengths like this, I think, work best with more basic music, material that doesn't require a ton of thought or attention to appreciate, grasp and understand, where as music of a more progressive nature like this, shorter lengths work better because there is more going on and it does require the listener to be more aware and pay the music a lot more thought to grasp and when you have an album that's close to an hour and twenty minutes, it can get a bit overwhelming to listen to, and about 3/4 of the way through the record, I found myself getting a little tired of listening to it.
After giving this album a few listens, my opinion is that this is a very solid artistic vision, with a lot of good ideas and an intriging way to go about its Theological concept. But at the same time, its an album that demands a lot from the listener and can get exhausting to listen to. It has a lot of interesting styles and riffs, really great atmosphere and intriguing structures, but also suffers from less than ideal execution. I would say, undoubtly, that it is the worst out of the Metaphysical trilogy, but its still a smart, solid album overall and I do highly recommend it for people looking for a more thoughtful and progressive metal album, but know that it is imperfect and has a lot to for you to take in.
