Osculum Infame
Dor-Nu-Fauglith
[Mordgrimm]
Well, this was an easy listen for once. Osculum Infame mixes extreme melody and a heavy keyboard influence with harsher elements. Does this sound like a turnoff? Well it might but this is pure excellence. Osculum Infame captures a feeling of the utmost atmosphere, triumph and grandeur. Arisen from within the French underground Osculum Infame delivers an assault not necessarily on your eardrums but on your mind. OI could with this kind of music easily rise to the international stardom with the likes of Dummo Burgir but they stay underground by creating nice little tunes like "Kein Entkommen" and they should be honoured for it. I would like to think that "staying underground" is less music related and more related to mentality.
So what we have here should be an album created by a group with their mentality in the underground and at the same time creating mainstream like black metal? That's not entirely true. If we examine the music more in detail we find some huge differences that places this album light years ahead of any so called black metal album that ever have entered the German "metal"-chart. The music for one thing is more complex and the vocals are more strained and evil sounding. The guitars have a more primitive sound and are placed up front in the mix. I said earlier that that OI uses a heavy keyboard influence and that is true but I think that this album demonstrates one of the finer use of keyboards I've ever heard. The keyboard(/s?) is almost ever present but the use and even more important the SOUND differentiates them from the likes of DB and Nokturnal Mortum (whose main flaw is the sound of their keyboards). You cannot hear the "piano" sounding keyboards (that often seem to be a necessity for popularity and which I loath) "rolling" endlessly over the music instead OI:s keyboards build a thick background wall of atmosphere with "choir" and "organ" sounding keyboards and the like. The drumming on this album together with the most perfect production (where every element is clearly audible) draw this album even further away from the pit of doom referred to as "mainstream black metal".
The last and most important difference is (mentioned above) the mentality. With a true mentality you can easily create true atmosphere, which is very important in keyboard driven music where atmosphere count for a lot. If your mentality is to make loads of money then you're only able to create an atmosphere equivalent to shite. Mentality is the difference between cheese and the expression of true feelings. The triumph and grandeur this album expresses sounds true and is true. Just listen to the intro part of the track "Under the sign of the Beast" and you'll know what I'm talking about. Also be sure to take the time to note the sound of the cymbals on the same track (around 8:05)....aaaaaahhhh worth the price of this CD alone.
The conclusion we can draw from all this is that OI truly is a band with its roots and mentality in the underground and therefor their music rises above the mainstream black metal. This is an easy listen in the lack of disturbance physically but they do create a mental disturbance making this a not so easily digested piece of music, the complexity also play a role here.
This could be the perfect creation if it wasn't for one thing. Why does French band always feel the need to have either a spoken intro or a spoken-word passage in English included on their albums? Inspector Closeau had done it better. I'm therefor calling for an immediate end to such nonsense (and that goes for Bekhira too) and recommend that you skip the intro on this album if you want to enjoy it to it's fullest extent. Well the intro might deduct one per mill of the final grade but I still hold this as a f***** 10.
© 2001 herr nebelwerfer
So what we have here should be an album created by a group with their mentality in the underground and at the same time creating mainstream like black metal? That's not entirely true. If we examine the music more in detail we find some huge differences that places this album light years ahead of any so called black metal album that ever have entered the German "metal"-chart. The music for one thing is more complex and the vocals are more strained and evil sounding. The guitars have a more primitive sound and are placed up front in the mix. I said earlier that that OI uses a heavy keyboard influence and that is true but I think that this album demonstrates one of the finer use of keyboards I've ever heard. The keyboard(/s?) is almost ever present but the use and even more important the SOUND differentiates them from the likes of DB and Nokturnal Mortum (whose main flaw is the sound of their keyboards). You cannot hear the "piano" sounding keyboards (that often seem to be a necessity for popularity and which I loath) "rolling" endlessly over the music instead OI:s keyboards build a thick background wall of atmosphere with "choir" and "organ" sounding keyboards and the like. The drumming on this album together with the most perfect production (where every element is clearly audible) draw this album even further away from the pit of doom referred to as "mainstream black metal".
The last and most important difference is (mentioned above) the mentality. With a true mentality you can easily create true atmosphere, which is very important in keyboard driven music where atmosphere count for a lot. If your mentality is to make loads of money then you're only able to create an atmosphere equivalent to shite. Mentality is the difference between cheese and the expression of true feelings. The triumph and grandeur this album expresses sounds true and is true. Just listen to the intro part of the track "Under the sign of the Beast" and you'll know what I'm talking about. Also be sure to take the time to note the sound of the cymbals on the same track (around 8:05)....aaaaaahhhh worth the price of this CD alone.
The conclusion we can draw from all this is that OI truly is a band with its roots and mentality in the underground and therefor their music rises above the mainstream black metal. This is an easy listen in the lack of disturbance physically but they do create a mental disturbance making this a not so easily digested piece of music, the complexity also play a role here.
This could be the perfect creation if it wasn't for one thing. Why does French band always feel the need to have either a spoken intro or a spoken-word passage in English included on their albums? Inspector Closeau had done it better. I'm therefor calling for an immediate end to such nonsense (and that goes for Bekhira too) and recommend that you skip the intro on this album if you want to enjoy it to it's fullest extent. Well the intro might deduct one per mill of the final grade but I still hold this as a f***** 10.
© 2001 herr nebelwerfer