ALBUM REVIEW: Distortions From Cosmogony – The Arcane Order
We look to Scandinavia as one of the most notorious and prolific hotbeds for extreme metal music. As a result, when guitarists Flemming C Lund and Kasper Kirkegaard (also of HATESPHERE) set about recruiting new members into the fold for THE ARCANE ORDER‘s fourth studio album, there was a plethora of talent in the midst. The band would eventually secure the services of vocalist Kim Song Sternkopf of the stellar blackened death metal/gaze band MØL, as well as SOILWORK drummer Bastian Thusgaard and bassist Anders Frodo S. Mikkelsen (also of DEATH BECOMES PALE) to complete this all-star line-up. With all members in place, the band have created one of the most exciting and ambitious releases of the year so far in Distortions From Cosmogony.
The first real taste of this new era for the band came in the form of the scathing lead single Cry Of Olympus – a track that boasts nearly five minutes of blasting drum beats, rapid fire riffs and smatterings of symphonic elements that all provide the perfect backdrop to the vocal acrobatics of Sternkopf. The band have once again called upon the world-renowned producer Jacob Henson, who along with Jacob Bredahl (the latter responsible solely for the vocals), has given the perfect balance of serenity and power to the album.
As the album progresses, no quarter is given to the listener as Lund and Kirkegaard deliver volley after volley of skin-cleaving riffs atop the water-tight rhythmic section of Thusgaard and Mikkelsen. It is a testament to the high level of songwriting that A Blinding Trust In Chosen Kings passes by in what seems like a brief moment, rather than the near eight minutes that it actually clocks in at. The same also goes for the following song Starvations Of Elysium as the track ensnares you with layers of pulverizing blackened sections that are stitched together with sections of melodic interludes that hark back to the glory days of symphonic black metallers DIMMU BORGIR. Throw into the mix a beautifully written guitar solo from Lund to see things out and you have one of the finest songs on the entire album (and that is quite a feat).
The First Deceiver is one of the real highlights of the album. Listeners who are more accustomed to hearing Sternkopf with MØL will be shocked to hear the frontman displaying the kind of range that he does throughout this album and this track is probably the best example of that. There is a real sense of vitriol and raw aggression in the delivery of the guttural vocals at the start of the song that grips you as a listener immediately and refuses to let go. By contrast, Empedocles Dream slows everything down, providing a two-and-a-half-minute respite for the listener to catch their breath with the twin-lead echoed guitars and dreamy textures before Ideals Of Wretched Kingdoms raises the heartrate again with a pulsating industrial edge added to the mix beneath the intricate drums and neck-snapping tremolo riffs. This song is where Thusgaard really shines; the constant shifting rhythmic patterns and driving beats that he lays down on this track are the blocks on which everything is built, dictating the direction, and insisting upon the supreme technicality that fans of the band crave so much.
The penultimate song on the album Children Of Erebos is possibly the most savagely aggressive track on the entire record. All of the superhuman abilities of the quintet align perfectly here to deliver a ferocious yet surgically precise onslaught on the senses with one of the most extreme interpretations of symphonic metal that you are likely to hear. This song is on a plane entirely of its own, a nuclear-powered extreme metal opus that deserves to be displayed in a setting more akin to the cinema than the stages of clubs.
When the new, let’s be honest… improved line-up of THE ARCANE ORDER was announced prior to the release of Distortions From Cosmogony, the expectations were high, and the levels of intrigue were even higher. It seems that not only are the expectations met with this release, but they are blown out of the water entirely and should make a lot of people feel really rather silly for ever having a doubt in their mind as to the outcome. This is an album that deserves your attention and will undoubtedly be rubbing shoulders with the very best of 2023 on many people’s end of year lists.
Rating: 9/10
Distortions From Cosmogony is out now via Black Lion Records.
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