Aosoth - V: The Inside Scriptures (2017)^{Release ID: 8468}

It was the much lauded IV: Arrow in Heart that first put me onto French black metal marauders Aosoth. Whilst I did very much enjoy their penultimate offering it would be the fifth and final chapter of the band that made the largest impression on me. As Aosoth dipped out of a fifteen-year career, they managed to do so with a hideous memorability factor that still haunts me after most repeated visits to V: The Inside Scriptures.

As with French black metallers Deathspell Omega it is the unexpected aspects of Aosoth’s swansong that really make the album standout for me. Again, like their fellow countrymen, Aosoth do not rely on odious amounts of melody to break up the jabbing and stabbing fury of the full-tilt black metal that dominates most of the album. Instead, they parry the listeners attention with deft pace changes, obscure notes and claustrophobic string textures that linger across your skin like cobwebs in the darkness.

Cleverly, there are elements of Icelandic bm in these “off-cuff” incursions into unpredictable territory, yet at the same time, when in full flow, the band make some of the most tumultuous black metal I have heard this side of Antaeus (with whom Aosoth shared two members for most of their existence). These six, labyrinthine tracks all share an elementary level of complexity that can still lose the listener if you are not careful enough to afford the album your full attention. Although it may lack the overall technical aptitude of Deathspell Omega, it does possess a similar level of entrapment. However, I do feel like The Inside Scriptures has a more grim and earthy resonance above all other comparisons and is most certainly seeped with a more emotional yet no less chaotic style of songwriting.

I had held the album at what I now recognise to be a badly judged five-star rating and that has come down by a whole half-mark simply because it lacks enough frequency of the obscure to truly make it a standout release overall. I find myself on a couple of occasions waiting, actively listening for the next off-kilter section to rescue what on only a couple of occasions risks becoming a predictable direction of travel. Still, that grounded element to the sound keeps this album firmly in the top end of the scores for me as in such an inaccessible environment that it creates for itself, there is a genuine connection for me still and I do not have to dig too hard to find it either.