Haeresiarchs Of Dis - Denuntiatus Cinis
Haeresiarchs of Dis originally entertained the world with its debut, 'Overture.' Now, two years later, the one man black metal band from San Jose California entertains again, only on a deeper and darker level. For those who felt that the original debut was a bit too harsh on production and one sided, even though it was chock full of atmosphere, 'Denuntiatus Cinis' cleans up whatever issues fans might have complained about before. The music is still raw, but also beautiful due to the interluding and haunting ambient tracks that break up the roller coaster ride of depressive/ suicidal black metal. It is like someone merged Karna and Leviathan and Xasthur together ( the latter also Moribund Cult artists) and the result was Haeresiarchs. And it is a very good result indeed.
The album opens with "Entry"- very Xasthur-like in its use of distortion and low keys, but Haeresiarchs makes this the true soundtrack of nightmares, much akin to Karna, due to chilling screams of terror muffled in the background. Then the black metal his with "Intent The Proem," full of tremolo picking, blastbeats, and shrieking/ clean vocals. Thankfully, they don't all stay in the same note the entire way through as there is some very Emperor-esque guitar moments at times: wild yet very controlled. About halfway through the track things seem to slow down to long, depressively drenched chords before things pick up again. This is perhaps the best sign of the progression of mainman Cernunnos's work. From this point on fans will be granted a 'trading off' of sounds. "The Respite" has a similar mood to the first one in the sense it is instrumental but makes more use of echoing guitar rather than FX sounds or keyboards. Very twisted and supportive of the atmosphere all the same. "Intent Canticle" is more straightforward black metal and doesn't have the beauty that "Proem" does, but it is good to see Cernunnos retain some of his former album's sound.
"Intent In The Augury" is a bit more black metal than ambient but still holds a lot of instrument only moments; again this is a great example of ambient/ depressive black metal done right. The only really odd track on the album is the sampling of an Irish song called "Bemoan The Fallen.' The fokish nature suits the experimental nature of the album, but it may make fans pause and wonder because it doesn't fit the tone of the album overall. Thankfully "Median Existence" cleans that up with some sonic black metal audial hell. The two part "Intent" tracks go hand in hand together as the first half is more a mix of cracking distortion and then soft acoustic guitar atmosphere before the second track is the more vocal lead black metal side. The entire track is almost sheerly ovedone with high pitched guitars to match the vocals, but near the end things start to shape up a bit for variation.
Haeresiarchs has certainly outdone himself with this impressive masterpiece. While the vocals are a bit piercing at times with that older Cradle Of Filth tone to them, the musical order of things is stellar. Certainly worth a listen for fans of any ambient/ depressive black metal who want to see some sort of experimental change from album to album while still retaining a sense of base sound.
The album opens with "Entry"- very Xasthur-like in its use of distortion and low keys, but Haeresiarchs makes this the true soundtrack of nightmares, much akin to Karna, due to chilling screams of terror muffled in the background. Then the black metal his with "Intent The Proem," full of tremolo picking, blastbeats, and shrieking/ clean vocals. Thankfully, they don't all stay in the same note the entire way through as there is some very Emperor-esque guitar moments at times: wild yet very controlled. About halfway through the track things seem to slow down to long, depressively drenched chords before things pick up again. This is perhaps the best sign of the progression of mainman Cernunnos's work. From this point on fans will be granted a 'trading off' of sounds. "The Respite" has a similar mood to the first one in the sense it is instrumental but makes more use of echoing guitar rather than FX sounds or keyboards. Very twisted and supportive of the atmosphere all the same. "Intent Canticle" is more straightforward black metal and doesn't have the beauty that "Proem" does, but it is good to see Cernunnos retain some of his former album's sound.
"Intent In The Augury" is a bit more black metal than ambient but still holds a lot of instrument only moments; again this is a great example of ambient/ depressive black metal done right. The only really odd track on the album is the sampling of an Irish song called "Bemoan The Fallen.' The fokish nature suits the experimental nature of the album, but it may make fans pause and wonder because it doesn't fit the tone of the album overall. Thankfully "Median Existence" cleans that up with some sonic black metal audial hell. The two part "Intent" tracks go hand in hand together as the first half is more a mix of cracking distortion and then soft acoustic guitar atmosphere before the second track is the more vocal lead black metal side. The entire track is almost sheerly ovedone with high pitched guitars to match the vocals, but near the end things start to shape up a bit for variation.
Haeresiarchs has certainly outdone himself with this impressive masterpiece. While the vocals are a bit piercing at times with that older Cradle Of Filth tone to them, the musical order of things is stellar. Certainly worth a listen for fans of any ambient/ depressive black metal who want to see some sort of experimental change from album to album while still retaining a sense of base sound.
- Entry
- Intent the Proem
- The Respite
- Intent Canticle
- Intent the Augury
- Bemoan the Fallen
- Median Existere
- Nine Days They Fell
- Intent Concupiscence
- Ad Baculum
- Intent the Succedaneum
- Intent Postremo Enclosure Orsorum
- Exeunt
Moribund Cult Records
Reviewer: Colin McNamara
Jan 12, 2011
Jan 12, 2011
Next review:
Zombified - Outbreak
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