Sadness, a deep and profound sadness. Not melancholy, because melancholy is a different thing. It’s pure sadness the feeling Aran Angmar with “Ordo Diabolicum” share with me. This is the first album in nine years that made me feel really sad. Of course, I had others with some melancholy, many Atmospheric Black Metal albums, but none made me feeel this sad.
But how to define sadness? It is not simply the absence of happyness. I can be unhappy, but that does not mean I am sad. I can be only unsatisfied, but not sad. I can be regretful, but it is not the same feeling. There is also discontent, but that means I am not content, which does not mean sad. To be sad is simply another thing. It is an urge to cry without any explanation, it is to feel down and lonely. Maybe the best synonim would be the very popular to feel like cr*p. I can only say sadness is my dear friend and “Ordo Diabolicum” shares this sadness with me with flying colors.
The sadness chronicles of “Ordo Diabolicum” commence with “Dungeons of the Damned” whose female chanting sows the seeds of discord allowing the fan to be part of collective sadness. Following “Aeon Ablaze” starts an uncanny track full with chantings that sound to be a part of some kind of ancient cerimonies we all have seen in the movies or TV, but, in a sudden, the fan is overwhelmed by a mass of sound that makes a lot more sense to the track sequence. The melacholic harsh voice leads the way spreading like a disease to the the instrumentals. I have never seen so sad guitars as I have seen here. Even the slow guitar licks are of some kind of sadness. And then comes tittle track “Ordo Diabolicum” with its massive sorrowful mass of sound. By the way, Aran Angmar are masters of creating this kind of mass of sound. Also, the mostly incomprehensive lyrics help a lot with the atmosphere of despair and helplessness. I guess hell’s atmosphere must be this way with an unbearable feeling of nothingness and incompletude, therefore the overwhelming sadness. “Hêlēl ben-Šaḥar” completes the feeling from the beginning with a medieval mood given by the acoustic guitars and the bass strumming. The slow guitar phrasing fills in the blanks with more sorrow. Vocals just add more sadness. After a gentle start with a slow theme, I feel that the guitars of “Chariots of Death” only fill in the void with more oppression in order to torture the tomented souls lost anywhere in the void of lost souls. I have never seen an album this powerful to express these feeelings. And some say Black Metal is out of reality. It may be ungodly or otherworldly, but it has its roots here.
I could see myself in a battlefield full of dismembered bloody bodies and carcasses filling the air with their filthy. The air was thin and the atmosphere was of lonelyness and sacrifice. There was nothing of that feeling of done duties or the sensation of fulfillment. Only pain and misery. That’s what “Ordo Diabolicum” is all about. Just the feeling of being part of this sad and onley and pathetic little world where evil prevails. The album is a great representation of this reality.
Aran Angmar “Ordo Diabolicum” will be released on March 21st via Soulseller Records.
Track Listing:
1. Dungeons of the Damned
2. Aeon Ablaze
4. Hêlēl ben-Šaḥar
6. Chariots of Death
7. Primordial Fire
8. Vae Victis
Watch “Ordo Diabolicum” official visualizer stream here:
Source: metaladdicts.com
