ALBUM REVIEW: Black Star Gnosis – Demoncy
As one of the first black metal acts to emerge from the United States, DEMONCY have quite a significant legacy at this point. And where some of these bands within the late 80s scene have either altered their style or petered out, the North Carolina act have managed to stay true to their roots across each of their first five albums. With the band being in a lengthy state of creative dormancy since the re-release of Empire Of The Fallen Angel (Eternal Black Dominion) in 2015, a lot of their fans probably wondered when they were going to hear new material from them. The band’s latest, sixth album, Black Star Gnosis, and the Diabolica Blasphemiae EP, released two weeks apart from each other, mark the band’s first releases featuring entirely original material since 2012, and the album in particular is a solid inclusion into their already impressive pantheon.
Across The Setian Planes is an ominous, minimalistic piece of music, providing a lengthy ambience-driven instrumental opener to the record which stands in stark contrast with Ipsissimus Of Shadows, an incredibly angular and lean slab of black metal with biting leads, hissing, sinister vocals and tight, frenetic drumming which all create a sharp and focused sound with a few chaotic sections peppered throughout to provide some harsher moments that add to the coarse edge provided by the production. Black Star Gnosis serves as a faster take on this formula, with the same sort of steady, tremolo-picked leads and intricate drumming, with muscular, doom-laden passages added, sounding very similar to what immediately preceded it whilst subtly inverting the formula to allow for a slower, bleaker sound rather than a rabid and intense one.
Cosmic Curse Invocation opts for a chunkier, more primal war metal sound with huge chords and searing vocals allowing for a weightier sound with meatier guitar work and punishing percussive blasts making this sound a lot thicker than earlier tracks, although it still possesses the same kind of droning, hypnotic leads that served the last two songs well. Syzygy Of Unholy Trinity has a more dramatic, atmospheric sound, built around haunting keyboards and spartan gutturals, shifting the style away from the claustrophobic black metal of the previous three songs and having more in common with the opener whilst being a lot more animated, without straying into the realms of full blown dungeon synth too much.
De Mysterium Noctis lurches abruptly back to a decidedly more demented iteration of the album’s core sound, with ferocious drums, acidic, whispering vocals and bestial guitars crafting an offering that’s not too far removed from other songs, but with a deeper sense of urgency. Performing The Ceremonies Of Tragedy changes the tone significantly towards a funereal pace, with droning guitars and steady drums which lend a cavernous air to proceedings. This is something that doesn’t vanish from the sound even when the black metal elements return to the forefront, punctuating this mostly slow and sombre affair with biting, cacophonous hooks rather than being the main focus of the music, and ultimately making for a great and impactful change of pace.
Cosmic Curse Expulsion, another fast and furious slab of aggression, has some impressive, energetic leads and particularly visceral vocals, which, alongside the juggernaut drumming, make this by far one of the album’s most noxious and adventurous songs. Occultation Of Typhon brings the album full circle, returning to the heady, keyboard-driven ambience that defined Across The Setian Planes, and creating an airy and immersive piece of minimalism which brings this album to a close in a similar way to which it began.
Black Star Gnosis, when compared not only with Enthroned Is The Night and the new Diabolica Blaspehmiae EP, lacks some of the impact that these other two records possess. Where Enthroned Is The Night is muscular, harsh and varied, this album has a decidedly looser, more hypnotic sound, with the riffs on some of these songs being so similar that it makes them interchangeable with each other. There’s some great moments of ambience and meatier, chaotic bursts that often match the impact of some of the bands most celebrated work, but it could have worked a lot better if three or four of the weaker offerings were cut from here and the material from the new EP had taken its place, as it’s a lot more visceral and adventurous, packing a serious punch that is genuinely some of the band’s best work to date.
Rating: 7/10
Black Star Gnosis is out now via Dark Descent Records.
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