Satan Alpha Omega

Deiphago is one of the most original bands in all extreme metal music. Hailing in 1989 from Manila, Philippines (and then relocated to Costa Rica in 2004), they started as an obscure doom black death band in their home country and continued creating music while developing their wisdom in occultism in the early and middle 90s. As said before, the band started playing obscure doom black death on their first demo and, in the beginning of the 90s evolved to death black with influences from 80s hardcore punk and the first wave of black metal like Mayhem, Hellhammer, Venom, Bathory and South American influences like Sarcofago.

Deiphago have developed their art through the years, reaching perfection in their compositions and been established as a strong bestial war metal band. They are one of those bands that are very rare and extreme to the average metal guy, perfect for those who appreciate the extreme music. They are the epitome of originality and violence in constant change to more genius and aggression.

If you are looking for nice melodies or bombastic 90s blackmetal tunes you will not find them here, but in the vinyl version, it is more able to appreciate the harmonics derived from the chaotic sound, if it is listened to from a little far distance you can listen not only the wall of noise also some magic melodies buried in them created randomly by the harmonics in the low frequencies. This is an album to study what these guys created and what was generated by the dark forces summoned during the recording.

In this great album (one of my favorite albums from Deiphago, it is difficult to choose which one is their best because all their albums have their own personality, different elements and tunes) the desecration starts with a WW curfew siren to give passage to the first annihilation “Human Race Absolute End” the title is defined perfectly by the music which is very chaotic, followed by two more aggressive and chaotic tunes like “Heretic Oath” and “Plague and Satan Triumphant” makes a preamble to the extreme devastation theme “Exalted Hate” (more chaos here) which is a theme with two great solos from Sidapa and the killer bulldozer bass of Voltaire 666. The sixth track “Satanmongers” is a bestial war black metal hymm for the real Satanists and followers of this great band to exalt the dark entity of Satan.

The eighth track is a great cover of Deicide's Crucifixation which is even more aggressive than the original and you will not lose the trance of hearing the entire album because it sounds like Deiphago and not like other bands trying to copy Deicide. This is a high point in my opinion. I will end this review hailing track number ten "Satan Alpha Omega" , this is the first track I listened from the album (back in 2012), it is very catching tack for the first time listener, you can find it in Youtube, this was the track that makes me headbang like a fucking crazy.

Even knowing all the recordings of this band since many years ago, I surprised with this album because the band evolved and presented a mix of doom, punk, metal, old hardcore with satanic bestial/war. The outro track is a bizarre and macabre ambient track that transports you to the abyss, as Incantantation did also with their last track in their album Blasphemy.

Technically, this is a great album with a combination of great riffs, aggression, speed and smart compositions. The lyrics are also direct to the point. Time gave the reason and now Deiphago is well known and recognized as a strong established force in the bestial death black and war metal escenes.

Filipino death/black metal horde Deiphago’s latest album fits firmly within the ‘war metal’ niche.

For those with a fondness of a more conspicuous ‘musical’ approach you’ll be relieved to find that Deiphago don’t simply aim for an impenetrable wall of noise that many associate with the emulation of many post-Ross Bay acts.

Riff work and percussion are neatly balanced within a ‘modern’ sounding production job that shows consideration for the primitive and raw acoustics of each instrument whilst never being overbearing. The overall production is not unlike the most recent album by Impiety, but more organic sounding, with less compression, and much more analogous.

Musically the more discernible segments of ‘Satan Alpha Omega’ are similar to Bestial Warlust, albeit less harmonious and with a more low-end, downtuned aesthetic that is parallel to Conqueror, but more upfront in the mix.

Solos accentuate individual songs to good effect, having a playfulness similar to what you’d expect from Angelcorpse, but more simple, less technical but with a similar manipulation of the tremolo arm. Drumming is akin to the work of J.Read (Revenge, Conqueror, Axis Of Advance) but more loose, less mechanistic and free flowing, working very well with the power-trio dynamic Deiphago possess.

Amidst the fury of ‘Satan Alpha Omega’ Deiphago blast forth a cover of ‘Crucifixation’ by Deicide. If you were to listen to this album without having observed any of the artwork and having observed none of the song titles it would be difficult for this to become obvious, though it is perhaps the most discernable track on the album, along with the title track. Deiphago break no new ground but firmly know their aesthetic, and how to work external ideas into it.

It’s easy to imagine the how this band would come across within a live environment, and ‘Satan Alpha Omega’ makes for a solid, savage listen.

http://stenchofishtar.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/deiphago-satan-alpha-omega/

Are they still calling this "war metal," or is it supposed to be "bestial black metal" now?

Either way, Deiphago fully embrace all the clichés. Ridiculously fast and raw? Check. Uncompromisingly aggressive? Check. Over-the-top, blasphemous, slightly funny song titles with made-up words? Check. Songs you can't really tell apart? Check. Sub-par production? Check. Awesome? Check.

It's black metal played at double-time and double-ugly, in homage to Sarcófago, and it's exactly the kind of thing you expect on Hells Headbangers. It's also the quality you expect from the label, i.e., you won't be disappointed. There's enough off-kilter soloing (e.g., "Heretic Oath") and the occasional slower tempo (e.g., the title track) to keep it interesting, no matter how primitive the approach. This is only the Filipino band's third full-length, but they are 20+ year veterans. Given the style they play and the production they prefer, it still sounds like a debut, which, honestly, is how something like this should sound.

Still, despite the fact you can hear the bass, the production is even muddier than most bands of this ilk. I understand that's how all Deiphago's releases sound. It will prove a barrier to some, and makes it almost impossible to really dig into it. But that's not the point. If you couldn't already figure that out, this is not for you.

originally written for http://fullmetalattorney.blogspot.com/

Although Deiphago’s first full length “Satanik Eon” dropped in 2006, they have been around in some form since the early nineties. The colder parts of Europe often get the rep for ‘innovating’ the black metal sound, yet the style spent its youth on the better part of four continents. This global birth was perhaps most evident in the ‘bestial’ variety of black metal, in which Asia played a significant role. Dominated by noise and lo-fi sonic chaos, there is the sense in “Satan Alpha Omega” that Deiphago have not evolved their mindset since the early days of this sound. For better or worse, Deiphago deliver a raw half-hour of war metal that makes no considerations to modern trends and innovations. Anyone looking for an album with a hint of subtlety or moderation should turn around and head far away; “Satan Alpha Omega” offers none of the sort.

Although a band like the Singaporeans in Impiety have audibly matured and refined their sound, Deiphago’s latest sounds like it could have been recorded in the mid-nineties. Black metal is the central element here, but sounds of thrash and death metal are evident as well. Although a rough production is generally a staple of black metal, Deiphago production sounds little better than demo standard for the most part. Recently added drummer Savnok’s busy performance comes across as fierce, and Voltaire 666’s vocals are audible enough in the mix. Where “Satan Alpha Omega”s recording feels most primitive- and where I think most listeners will find their biggest gripe- is in the way the guitars have been produced. Although some decent riffs can be discerned from “Heretic Oath” and the ritualistic title track, most everything guitar-related in “Satan Alpha Omega” comes off as a wave of harsh noise. It’s as if they were playing loud enough for the speakers to blow, then recorded the effect from the next room over. Depending on where you’re coming from as a listener, this can be a total deal breaker, or a real compliment to the band’s intensity. I’m ultimately left feeling mixed and agreeing somewhat with both sides. There’s no doubt that Deiphago’s energy is all-consuming here, but when it’s difficult to make out much save for an omnipresent blastbeat and garbled screaming, it would be a hard sell to call this an album that grows with each listen. True to the album title, Satanic imagery pervades “Satan Alpha Omega”, and though this could have brought the band dangerously close to the realm of cliché, the unrelenting aggression gets across a sense of hateful sincerity.

For the most part, “Satan Alpha Omega” is a trip through hell that offers two or three listens before the shock value peters out. The most notable exception to this is the “Outro”. Considering it takes up nearly a quarter of the album’s playing length, it’s certainly more than a tack-on. Although Deiphago’s take on war metal generally leaves me feeling underwhelmed, “Outro” is a sprawling piece of dark ambiance that brings a haunting atmosphere that truly feels like the listener has finally reached the pit of hell. Caught somewhere between harsh electronics and rhythmic industrial music, it gradually builds into something diabolical. It’s a fitting denouement for such an abrasive album, and it’s a shame that the rest of “Satan Alpha Omega” does not convey the same hellish atmosphere. Ultimately, Deiphago’s latest passes me as an album that seeks to relive the glory of the war metal classics. However, unlike Blasphemy’s “Fallen Angel of Doom”, the shock value is quick to wear off. It’s worth the ride at first, but war black metal has had darker days than this.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a serious and widespread behavioral problem. Appearing in childhood, its symptoms are concentration difficulties, extreme agitation, even aggressivity. Not adequately treated, ADHD can have important consequences for teenagers and adults, such as socio affective disorders, emotional instability and chronic bouts of spontaneous violence. This brief clinical description beautifully illustrates Deiphago’s music. Originating for the Philippines, now relocated to Costa Rica, this band exists since the late 1980s, leaded by Sidapa ans Voltaire 666 (!). Inspired particularly by Hellhammer, Sarcófago and Beherit, it vomits a music belonging to war bestial black / death crap metal register, a subgenre I hate with a passion, as it gets on my nerves everytime I dare listen to it.

Despite a long career marked by numerous publications, Satan Alpha Omega (2012) is only the band’s third full-length. True to their favorite style, members of this diabolical orchestra swing music you would swear written by someone with an extreme form of hyperactivity (or struck by a seizure while taking amphetamines). After a short introduction, Human Race Absolute End tumbles at full speed in all directions at once. Impossible to distinguish any structure at all, as the band increases rhythmic patterns and breakdowns for more than thirty minutes. Guitar sound is fat, drums are wielded by a madman and vocalist seems perpetually out of breath. Only a children’s party held in a McDonalds could partly reproduce the aggression feeling that the listener experiences by enduring this album. After a dozen listens, I am therefore ready for intravenous Ritalin.

War black metal enthusiasts will be delighted by this album, which meets all codes of the genre. However, its rough and primitive aspects confirm my aversion for this style. I am fully aware that black metal is an extreme and brutal music, but I’m still expecting more from its artisans than an improvised musical nonsense. But then, it’s probably an horizon that members of Deiphago will ever fail to overcome. 3/10

Originally written for Métal Obscur.

Deiphago of the Philippines provides such an over the top, barbaric blast to the face that it's almost difficult to qualify or quantify what they play as 'music', at least in terms of the traditional aesthetics of melody, harmony and the memorable fortification of rhythmic timekeeping. That's not to say that what they perform is void of any intrinsic, blasphemous value, because a more fucked up ride than this you are not likely to take again anytime soon, and in the tradition of their prior efforts like Filipino Antichrist, they really grind the genre to the hilt, as if they were audio manifestations of living hellfire that sought to seethe and burn through the speakers and headphones into their target audience and melt their damp brains.

I suppose at the root of this repulsive abomination is a hint of incendiary black/war metal redolent of groups like Bestial Warlust, Blasphemy or Revenge, with a fraction of Impiety's noisier 90s friction. I'm also reminded of a local group called Watchmaker, who pursued a similar if more dynamically integrated sense of chaos.The drums are splayed out in blast beat patterns, and the guitars highly distorted. So distorted, in fact, that they feel like they're being twisted through space as they brutishly mete out their discordant clamor. Several sequences are slower, gaping and doom-like, and these feel just as unnatural and fucked as the rest of the riffs, but usually they rifle along at an accelerated pacing. The leads used in tracks like "Exalted Hate" feel like web-works of madness being strewn about the abyssal layer of pummeling and painful momentum, and it's quite easy to become confused and unnerved in the process. The bass is unadulterated, churning sewage, a manhole to an underworld of heinous torture.

Be warned: there is nothing remotely comfortable about this material. Most music is written with the intention that you'll recall and hum along to it later. That's not what an album like Satan Alpha Omega is really about. Where most extreme metal bands encapsulate their infamy into familiar rhythmic environs, this is extremely, ergonomically unsafe and highly stress inducing. It's like having your spine removed and cast into a giant hamster wheel with ravenous daemons doing laps inside, the nerve endings still attached to the rest of your being. And yet, it's internally consistent. There is a method to this madness. The band doesn't merely fire up a conflagration of random sounds, they leave the chaos to the architecture of the guitars and tease you with the familiar, hoarse rasping of the black metal genre, the solid and spastic drums. It's familiar, and yet so very, very different.

In the end, Satan Alpha Omega is infernal nihilism in the flesh. A tantrum of Leviathan. If I listened to this any more out loud in my apartment, I'd probably get evicted. Primordial, ugly and repulsive, it will rape your ears, then leave bleeding on your doorstop without so much as a goodbye or apology. It's not an album you experience to 'enjoy'...but to 'destroy'. Not in any way 'great', but grating with as much beatific hostility the trio can muster with the 20+ years of history behind it. If this sounds in any way attractive to that misanthropic imp that awaits restlessly within your psyche, seeking to punish you at any given moment, then suffer it well.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com