May 2022 Feature Release – The North Edition
May is upon us and as the weather moves away from being as black metal as possible we continue to suggest cold and icy releases here in The North Clan. Except this month I have picked something different in the form of some Portuguese black metal from Onirik and his 2020 album The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity. It is a little different to my standard bm fodder in that I find this to be a densely layered album. It is an album I hold in high-regard and awarded it 4.5/5 stars upon my review here at MA and it owns a slot in my vinyl collection also.
https://metal.academy/releases/24320
Nice choice Vinny. This was one of my favourite albums of 2020 which was quite a strong year for black metal. I have already written a review which I have revised slightly and will repost here as it still sums up my feelings towards the album:
Onirik hails from Portugal, hardly known as a hotbed for black metal and is the solo project of one Gonius Rex who has released several reasonably-received albums since 2004 under the moniker. For me, this is my first exposure to the project so I went in having no particular expectations for this latest album. It features seven songs with a total running time of forty-five minutes, the longest, Assigned to the Inexorable Flames, weighing in at nine minutes. Vocally, Gonius Rex goes more for the croaking style of Abbath rather than soul-shredding shrieking and actually sounds impressively evil. Lyrically the themes explored involve the usual dark, occult-based search for forbidden knowledge and experience so intrinsically linked to black metal's core aesthetic - so far, so expected. Musically, it is a bit more ambitious than that however, with a discordant, busy guitar sound that gives it some avant-garde credentials and replaces traditional black metal riffs with a still direct, but more chaotic style that is heavily influenced by Deathspell Omega I would suggest. The overall effect is a lightning-in-a-jar exercise in controlled chaos and may either set your head a-spinning or fire up your blood, depending on your state of mind at the time of listening. That said, there is an absolute killer of a riff during penultimate (and my personal favourite) track Murmurs of the Aging Vessel that any real fan of black metal should lap up and closer Apathy of Might is in a more conventional black metal vein than the preceeding forty minutes. Initially I was under the impression that this was entirely a solo project, so was extremely impressed by Gonius Rex's drum skills, but this isn't the case, rather he hired ex-Enslaved and Gehenna skinsman Dirge Rep to handle the drumming. I think this was a very sound decision as an electronic kit or a less adept practitioner could have had a severe detrimental effect on the album's execution, but Rep's skills are such that the material is significantly enhanced by his presence. The songwriting and instrumental skills exhibited by Gonius Rex mark him as an exceedingly talented individual with black metal circles and this talent probably deserves more attention than Onirik currently enjoy.
Overall, this isn't actually the style of black metal I prefer, I am much more of a traditionalist, yet there is something about this album that appeals and I can't help but keep coming back to it and I guess that is the mark of a great album, so I consider this one a winner.
4.5/5
It's fascinating that Sonny and myself can approach this album from vastly different positions and yet we can both agree about the quality of The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity. My introduction to black metal was through a lot of the melodic sound of Windir, Dissection and more recently, Obsequiae. But a lot of roots in post-metal led me toward Agalloch and Summoning. So when the dissonant guitar leads that open this album enter on "Cult Beyond Eternity", I was less than impressed. But as the album progressed, I noticed the dissonant harmonies not playing as intrusive of a role as I initially thought. In fact, they actually compliment the more tonal sections admirably.
I get a lot of (good) progressive metal vibes out of this record, based on how individual tracks are constructed. The guitar gets plenty of moments to shine with some soaring chord progressions with a very solid melodic lead. The bass lines are independent from the guitar chords allowing for extended harmonies to flourish. Percussion is relatively tame for a black metal album, but that allows for the sparse moments when it does pick up into a blast beat fury to hit with more authority. And the vocals are well performed, but are heavily compressed in the mix, meaning the diction of the words is easily lost through the murk of the atmospherics. As for the compositions, I really enjoy how this album is able to compliment its tonal and dissonant sections together through similar motifs; typically found in many of the bass lines, but occasionally found through similar wordplay or percussion grooves.
This album is not as dank as many of the black metal records that I heard in 2020 and it gives this album a confined tone, which does have its positive and negative traits. For starters, having these avant-garde passages that are not entirely percussion dependent means that the dissonance of the guitar leads is not shoved directly into your ears as a method to turn the listener away. On the other hand, with the vocals being held back so far it makes me wonder why some compensation was never considered. But beyond that, this was a pleasant surprise. The progressive songwriting on display is much more up my alley in comparison to the choppiness found in modern prog metal, and is overall just an enjoyable sound, despite its atonality.
8/10
Consider me intrigued. I'll have to give this album a go.
I don't have much to add to my existing review for this. Since I got this on vinyl earlier this year it has occupied my headspace a lot and is an album that plays well away from the turntable by simply having gouged a place in my brain over repeated listens. I do keep meaning to check out more of his work but never quite seem to get around to it despite my obvious liking of this album.
Up until 2020 my life had been completely devoid of one-man Portuguese black metal project Onirik. Multi-instrumentalist Gonius Rex had apparently released four albums & a couple of splits by that stage but they’d somehow managed to drift past my attentive gaze along with the thousands of other potential underground metal masters that are released every year. Listening to “The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity” for the first time does make you wonder how that’s come to pass though as, love it or hate it, it’s very hard to deny that it’s the work of a well-equipped & highly ambitious individual who has spent a fair bit of time honing his craft already. That’s not to say that it all works as that’s certainly not the case (at least not for me) but there’s an air of confidence about the way Gonius goes about his art. Let’s take a look at it in more detail, shall we?
After sitting through the full duration of the album a few times I had to question why no one has been throwing around the “Avant-Garde” prefix much when it comes to Onirik’s latest work because it’s hardly your typical black metal outing. The relentless layering of unusual lead & bass guitar melodies really does sound very different to anything I’ve heard before & the closest comparison I can muster is to say that it reminds me of a more black metal oriented Ved Buens Ende…. (hears Ben’s ears prick up 819 km away). I guess it would be fair to say that those melodies will be the deciding factor in how much the album is capable of winning over your affections too because they can be quite off-putting when Gonius doesn’t get them to gel quite right, even bordering on the sickly or circus-ish at times which sees my rating potential having a hard cap placed on it to tell you the truth. When he gets everything right though it makes for a very interesting listen but I’m tempted to say that when I try to sum up my thoughts on the album I lean a lot closer to the word “interesting” than I do to the word “enjoyable” which is quite telling & is perhaps the primary reason that I’ve scored “The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity” lower than some of the rest of you. I think it’d probably to be unfair to reference the old cliché about not being able to turn away from a car crash when mentioning the parts that don’t sit well with me. It’d be more accurate to say that my attention is drawn to something that's sounds a little off but I’m so intrigued by the artist’s imagination & inventiveness that I remain on the edge of my seat waiting to see what he does to repair it. For that reason I don’t find a single one of the seven tracks a chore to sit through even if none of them ever seem to threaten being labelled a genuine classic.
This isn’t the most brutal or blasting of black metal releases but it doesn’t claim to be either. The production job is very compressed. You can make out all of the instruments pretty easily but it all moves as a singular sum of the various parts. The drum kit of Djevel/Gehenna/Enslaved drummer Dirge Rep could have been represented better as it sounds a little flat to my ears. I think this makes Dirge’s performance sound a bit more lacklustre than it actually is although I don’t think there’s anything particularly special about his work here anyway. The bass guitar lines are easily deciphered & showcase a brilliantly ambitious approach that excites the old musician in me. They’re used very much as an additional lead guitar in that they play an equal role in the presentation of the melodic themes & it sounds really fresh & innovative. Gonius’ vocals are presented in a croaky style similar to artists like Immortal, Abbath & Inquisition more than your usual high-pitched black metal screams & they’re more than serviceable without ever threatening to become a genuine highlight.
Overall I’ve found myself enjoying “The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity” more for it’s approach than it’s result. It’s definitely not my usual bag but it’s progressive tendencies & artistic nature were effective enough to win me over in the end. I’m not sure it’ll be getting too many return visits but it’s an excellent choice for a feature release as it makes for a great source of healthy discussion & will no doubt offer most of our regulars a significant amount intrigue & fascination.
3.5/5
Because I want to try and get through all the monthly features before leaving for a trip, I won't be able to give this any extra listens before giving some thoughts, which is a shame because I can tell this is an album that needs it. Dissonant, chaotic, dense, and slightly off-the-wall Black Metal is normally hit or miss for me, with stuff like Achatius really grabbing my attention and the rest of the stuff falling by the wayside. Onirik has piqued my interest in the short time I've spent with this album because it initially gives you the sense that it's just going to be a standard, more run-of-the-mill dense Black Metal album but then proceeds to veer off in a ton of different, but subtle paths that aren't immediately jaw dropping but are still interesting nonetheless. The suffocating production can leave some nuance to be desired at certain points but the seemingly out of place bass tone among the interwoven guitars becomes more and more compelling as its utilized in different ways as the album progresses. In a similar vein to Achatius, the lead guitar is always doing something, for better or worse. I think I could get a ton more out of this one on repeated listens so we'll have to see when I get back to it, since there's just too much going on to be fully absorbed initially. Definitely an album that requires insanely active listening and is made for people who enjoy that kind of thing, since many of the hard-hitting climaxes are well hidden amongst the dense songwriting.
3.5/5
It would be greatly appreciated if you could vote on the Hall of Judgement entry for this release Xephyr.