New Obscurantis Order

Let it be known that this album was my gateway into black metal. I had tried black metal several times before with recommendations of Dimmu Borgir and Emperor, but Anorexia Nervosa was the one that did it for me. Dimmu Borgir felt too much like a large production. They felt like scores of musicians rather than a metal band. I believe the band should be the central element, and symphony needs to stay in the realm of ornamentation. Also, Emperor's production was a little too harsh for my tender ears back then. But Anorexia Nervosa (specifically with this album) started my journey into black metal.

Anorexia Nervosa really lives up to their vile name with New Obscurantis Order, more so than any other of their releases. Like the eating disorder, the band sounds chaotic, loathsome, and sinister. However, the orchestral bursts and strings simultaneously make them come across as regal and courtly, similar to a skeletal woman starving herself to death because she sincerely believes herself to be beautiful with that appearance. This contradiction fleshes out in the cacophony that is New Obscurantis Order.

Let's analyze each instrument. The drums are lightning fast. The kicks are triggered, so each passage of rapid fire notes feels like a rumbling earthquake. Previously coming from a death metal background, I found that to be quite appealing. This drum mix is not common for black metal in 2001, but I'd say it is to their advantage. Blast beats can be found on every track save one, and they are very fast. You can tell that the band has radically accelerated their tempos since their previous release Drudenhaus.

The guitars are also impressive, possessing a rather technical edge. Looking up tabs for this band is difficult, but I was able to pull up "Chatiment de la Rose" on Songsterr, and it's a monster to play. While it is one of the most elegantly composed songs on the record, the rest of the songs still hold their own with sudden meter changes and twin guitar melodies. Without fail, the guitars are the driving force at every second. You can hear the complexity and stateliness even in the guitar tracks without the symphony.

The vocals sound like the howls of hysteria. Hreidmarr Rose is an excellent vocalist. He delivers lyrics very quickly, and the overlapping vocals tracks attack you with relentless screams throughout each song. His shrieks are at the forefront of the mix, and there is never a moment when you feel let down. You can hear the detail in his screams really well, indicating that he isn't hiding under loads of distortion and compression. He has great technique, and his breath capacity has to be insane.

The symphonic stuff (strings, horns, choirs, etc.) remains generally in the higher registers. Occasionally, they fight with the guitars like in "Black Death Nonetheless," but everything is used tastefully. This is something most symphonic bands fail to do. If it feels less like a band and more like a symphony with electric guitars and a drum kit, I lose interest very quickly. However, the guitars are never dethroned from their rightful place, and the orchestra only provides flavor, as it should remain.

Finally, the bass is very present. It has itself a nice home in the low-mid frequencies where the other tracks don't seem to interfere. I think that this makes the album more accessible and less like typical, cold black metal production.

Now for my personal highlights. "Mother Anorexia" is an incredible opener. The string intro immediately speaks to the listener, claiming magnificence and nobility, but that image is instantly shattered by the blast beats and evil guitars. To me, this opener sets the tone for the whole album. As the listener, you will meander between captivation, disgust, anger, and grief, just like one would at the sight of such an emaciated person. "Chatiment de la Rose" is my favorite track. It's somehow both beautiful and ugly. Hreidmarr's crazed growling, "My wishes reflect his will. He spoke to me and told me to kill," sends chills up my spine every time. It's twisted, disturbing, and yet so elegant. "Black Death Nonetheless" is pure hell with horns shooting cannon blasts right into your skull from beginning to end. "Stabat Mater Dolorosa" has the best intro on the whole album with a Spanish-style suprano lead taking the helm. The guitars then follow her melody, and the whole thing unfolds into another nihilistic explosion of cruelty. "Hail Tyranny" is an amazing piano interlude when I think things are starting to lull. I believe Hreidmarr is the one playing, and he strikes those keys in such a way that comes across as both melancholy and oppressive. Finally, "Ordo Ab Chao: The Scarlet Communion" is the perfect way to end a nearly perfect album. The apocalyptic guitar lines make the ending of the record feel like the ending of the world.

This whole album is a fantastic listen, and it's incredibly heavy. If you're cautiously optimistic about stepping into black metal from death metal or symphonic metal, I'd recommend Anorexia Nervosa's New Obscurantis Order any day.

This French band had already been on the scene for about 10 years and released two very unique albums: Exile, which I didn't like, and Drudenhaus, which was INSANE!!! Topping that meant more diverse vocals, more technical riffage and orchestral arrangements, faster tempos, and consistent fills, and this WAS achieved in 2001! But could it have retained the atmosphere of Drudenhaus? We will see.

The album starts with Mother Anorexia, a fast one with a keyboard intro, heavy orchestral arrangements, and soon we will see something quite unique in symphonic black metal: a duet between the orchestra with its complex arrangements, pompous feel, minor key melodies, and harmonies on one side and the crushing, distorted, fast-played, and complex riffage of the guitars (yes, there are two guitars). You could almost see which side wins, but it's like one of the battles where each side does its best just for the pleasure of it and not for an immediate gain. It's quite an eargasm!

Chatiment de la Rose is more elegant and less crushing, but still kicks ass French style! This track is much more complex including some progressive elements such as timing changes, many complex riffs that require moving your hand on the whole fret, creating melodies that get stuck in your brain, clean, thrashy and Venom-ish vocals, and structures that incorporate both minor and major keys. It's elegant like a rose that hits you with both the smell and the thorns and as aggressive as being suddenly awakened by an orchestra standing before your bed.

Black Death Nonetheless - sweet title! This has to be the most alert track here regarding the orchestral arrangement and, by this time, the guitar/keyboard duet transforms itself into a duo, with the keys acting almost as a lead guitar with the differences acknowledged. The vocals also are pushed almost to the limit of intense to super-intense screaming with only five seconds of respiration before the Cronos-style vocal melodies, but with Mille's balls and Hreidmarr's French elegant input. Instrumentally, I forgot to mention the abusive use of minor keys and power chords that add more heaviness to the songs, but without disregarding the elements of speed and aggression.

Stabat Mater Dolorosa is the most religious track of the album (by religious, I mean the lyrics are the most religion-targeted ones on the album). If there is anything I hate about this track, it's the prominent use of power chords that sometime take the leading role instead of using the orchestra to fill the weak spots. Anyway, this track seems out of place on this album. It appears as a leftover from the Drudenhaus sessions but is too sophisticated keyboard-wise even for this album. Experimentation with progressive elements this time includes breakdowns, gang choruses, using a soprano, and creating choir samples can be something uneasy to digest. It may be the fact that they aren't sufficiently trained or it's a matter of taste. Anyway, this track is better as a live performance than a sterile, studio-produced piece of music.

The dedication to the mother of the bastard son of humanity is one sick offering and has some lyrical tricks that I haven't seen applied anywhere except maybe if you take into account the idea of making drone music; it's the repetition of elements to induce the feeling of "catchiness" up to the point where your brain is to exhausted to fight the flux of melodies, harmonies, and riffage that penetrates inside violently. Le Portail de la Vierge does exactly that, but spices it up with friendly orchestra and aggressive guitars and drums. If it doesn't attract you from the beginning, you'll not get into it, but as I loved it seven years ago and hadn't heard it for six years, I was really able to remember the track, almost all of it except what powerful screams Hreidmarr executes.

Thrashing all around acting like some maniacs is Hreidmarr & the gang. Altar of Holocaust is one fast, ugly, thrashy, and straightforward piece of music. There's barely a timing change and the only spicy aspects are the clean vocals in the same vein as described above, but with more balls and hate in them and more melodic keyboards in the slower section. One thing is quite memorable here and that's the insane laughs near the end! Man, those laughs can give you some chills. If I wouldn't know better, it's like serial killers playing in a band just after slaughtering a class of Kindergarten children.

Hail Tyranny - Hail!!! Tchaikovsky would be so proud! One of the few Orthodox Christian composers playing some piece of music called Hail Tyranny! Besides this funny aspect, this track is out of place on this album, period. We already know you are talented and classically-trained, but why waste space on the disc and adrenaline in blood for two minutes of classical music that could have been more properly placed as a bonus track. Metal Meltdown would have been much more adequate here with its speed, aggression, gang choruses, speed, and screaming, powerful riffage and not the least important, SPEED!

Ordo ab Chao is the closing track and WHAT AN END...militaristic drumming, abusive use of minor keys, the same duet between the guitars and orchestra, power chords, screaming, growling, (Attila kind of, yeah, the one from Mayhem) etc. - all the ingredients that made all the previous tracks original in the first place meet for the grand finale of this album.

So after hearing this album, Solitude, despite its performance and originality, doesn't belong on this album. After all this aggression, this slow one is just out of place. Also, the production could have been a little louder and the guitars more distorted, but not like in Redemption Process where you can barely hear the riffs. And here I end my review. New Obscurantis Order, a brand new bible for the XXIst century youth, is one of the albums that must be heard at least by ones who love aggression, speed, elegance, diversity, and complex arrangements and melodies, especially the sad and dramatic ones.