Reviews list for Onirik - The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity (2020)

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.

Sounding like Mütiilation had a baby with Ved Buens Ende and produced an offspring that somehow captures the best of both parents, Onirik occupies quite a unique space in black metal.  The Portuguese one man bm project sticks with largely familiar themes on album number five treating us to seven tracks of constantly shifting evil.  However common the topics of evil, darkness and the occult maybe in black metal, I don't believe there are many artists out there expressing their devotion to such subjects as well as Mr. Gonius Rex is.

The Fire Cult Beyond Eternity is a chaotic, urgent, busy, progressive and melodic affair that offers more than enough kvlt content to appease the most trve of bm fans yet at the same time is able to branch out effortlessly into territories that would have most die-hards hiding behind their corpse-paint and brass candlestick holders as they try to process just where the fuck each track actually ends up.

An obviously experienced artist, Gonius excels himself here, building complex and arcane structures that morph before your very ears.  There's a constant sense of Onirik running with the very boundaries of black metal cradled in arms not caring where he ends up with it just going gung-ho to push it far and hard.  Better yet, there's no wankery here, no gazey influence to try and turn the heads of the less orthodox crowd.  Only a deaf person (or a complete fucking buffoon) could miss the inherent and intrinsic traits of black metal literally coursing through the veins of this record, yet equally as obvious are the expansive and spacious heights that the melodies of the album soar to and the dizzying spirals of the guitars as they loop like incantated notes through the air.

Come bathe in the glorious darkness (bring your own towels).

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.