Doedsmaghird - Omniverse Consciousness

Band:	Doedsmaghird
Album:	Omniverse Consciousness
Style:	Avantgarde black metal
Release date:	October 11, 2024
A review by:	RaduP

01. Heart Of Hell
02. Sparker Inn Apne Dorer
03. Then, To Darkness Return
04. Endless Distance
05. Endeavour
06. Death Of Time
07. Min Tid Er Omme
08. Adrift Into Collapse
09. Requiem Transiens

When your band is so avant-garde that you need a side-project to get even more avant-garde. If the band’s name does give you pause, you’re not having a dyslexic episode, Doedsmaghird is a side project of Dødheimsgard.

Well, that might be just a little bit of a stretch. Doedsmaghird is actually a duo, and while both members are Dødheimsgard alumni, only one of them is a member proper. Vicotnik, here under the name “Mr. Vicxit Baba Maharaja”, is the main link to the original band, having performed on all the band’s records and currently serving as their only original member. Joining him is Camille Giraudeau, here under the name “Ms. Longue Vie Imminent Doom”, whose credits include Smohalla and Stagnant Waters, but most relevantly has acted as Dødheimsgard’s live guitarist (thus no studio contributions) for the past few years. So the two projects are tied enough to the point where you can believably call one a side project of the other, but distinct enough that you can see why creating another project was necessary.

Having reviewed the latest Dødheimsgard record, Black Medium Current, and enjoying it a lot, comparisons between the two are quite inevitable. Black Medium Current was already a pretty elusive album, and one that felt very different to the Dødheimsgard albums before it, partly because of the new lineup it had (so having another lineup centered around Vicotnik between that album and this one doesn’t feel like that new of a jump to make), and partly because it felt like it prioritized different elements. It was very much an avant-garde record, but one that favored a deconstruction of the avant-garde black metal sound, something that felt more dreamlike and atmospheric, often forgoing all metal, let alone just black metal, elements that it inherited from its predecessors. And considering the band and the genre’s expected sound, a significant difference is that it didn’t feel “wacky”. Omniverse Consciousness undoes all that.

In a way Omniverse Consciousness has more in common with albums like Supervillain Outcast and A Umbra Omega in that the branch of avant-garde metal is pretty much wacky and electronic-infused black metal. It’s still a pretty hard record to take in, but it’s a lot easier to figure out what the record does. It’s just maddening to listen to, in a way that you’re not sure if you actually enjoy or you just respect for how out-there it is. For the most part the album is comprised of a stream of black metal, complete with blasts and icy riffing, but blended with other elements, from electronics to samples to choirs in a way that makes them feel like they’re a single stream of sounds rather than injections into a main sound. But the elements that are blended with the sound and the moments that deviate from the black metal feel like tricks after tricks being pulled out of Vicotnik’s hat, for no other reason than because he can.

Omniverse Consciousness works better than it should for how jarring all of its elements come together. That’s part of the appeal, and maybe I was spoiled by how soothing Black Medium Current was an experience comparatively, but my experience with Omniverse Consciousness is more in the realm of the obnoxious, though not without the respect for how it still manages to pull it off.