Satan Alpha Omega

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.