Kénôse

After that highly overrated black metal piece which Si Monumentum had been, Deathspell have finally refined the main weapon behind their fame, meaning the concept. The blasphemous images have not disappeared from the music (no wonder), but they serve much better for drawing the line of the band ideology of katharsis (no pun intended), death, revival and faithfulness, and the search for the "deus ignotus" whom they mentioned in their interviews.
To my pleasure, I noticed that those annoying "prayer" moments are gone, so the pieces flow much better as three complex multi-dimensional epics. The band has obviously mastered more of the risky (and often failing on SMRC) atonal riff tactic. Not only the riffs got faster, but they fit in better along with the rhythm. Very cool album until now, a must have, the epitome of epitomes of black metal... Wait a fucking second, here come the ugly ducklings. The quieter moments are extremely uninspired, take for example the beginning of the first track, which consists of dissonant bass accompanied by a slow drum rumble. These kind of moments are pathetic in their attempt to be mysterious and dark, not to mention a sloppy feeling in the dissonance. Actually, when it comes to slower and more plodding riffs, things get weaker (except maybe the beginning of track 2). Not to mention the breakdowns, which leave me sometimes very disappointed, like in the first track. Man, that riff coming after the first fast part is devastating. Gather Jenna Jameson, Britney Spears, Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton and they would not manage to suck as much as that riff does. Korn would take it as a mediocre riff. Doom metal tendencies have become more obvious, but in track 2 the band shines, as the tempos simply change from blasting to hammering slow pace in quite small intervals, proving a great sense of progression and tempo shifting.
Track 3 seemed to me an unadequate and ridiculously anticlimactic end. It all starts with the quasi-religious type of riff used so much on SMRC, but it is being played more monotonously. After this part ends, everything gets very chaotic. Whispers about apocalyptic devastation and things like that, over a ritualistic progression with slow riffing. This sounds to me more like random chords forming a discordant line, and the vocals simply piss me off. Growls get louder and louder, impossibly loud, considering that on the other tracks vocals were barely audible (lyric sheets are the keyword, boys) and the ending is damn abrupt.
An album above average, in my opinion, and the proof that DSO are perfecting their compositional style and possess the chance to become one of the bands in the future of the black metal genre.