The Rebirth of the Middle Ages

Every one in a rather long while you’ll hit upon a musical release, one which simply blows you away and doesn’t want to stop, ever. Black metal seems to be a subgenre within which such releases are particularly enjoyable, perhaps only because of the sheer abundance of otherwise unremarkable bands and albums camouflaging the gems. Such gems may certainly be found where one usually expects to look for quality black metal – Norway, Finland, Russia, Canada, Switzerland (the obligatory classics) – but even more satisfactory are those finds from corners of the world where nobody thinks about looking. One such place is the tiny nation of Monaco.

Godkiller is the rather unproductive (a couple of demos, and EP and two albums in 16 years) and little-noticed project of Duke Satanaël, also known for his participation in some French black metal bands. This project never really stood still, going from death metal, melodic black metal and several other things with these few recordings. Melodic black metal, however, was the idea when The Rebirth of the Middle Ages was created. This is the band’s only EP and, given the Duke’s insanely variable subgenre placement (I doubt there are two recordings of the same actual type of music), one can safely say that the twenty or so minutes of music here are unique in that nothing similar was produced elsewhere (by Duke Satanaël). Quite a pity that, since this is some of the finest music to have graced my ears, a gem among gems in the world of black metal.

Why is this so amazing? Simply put, everywhere you look, nothing could be made better with this recording. To be a little more precise on the type of music played, it’s black metal but with an insane emphasis on melody, one which, both by its quality and by its sheer concentration, makes early Emperor, Nokturnal Mortum or Dimmu Borgir seem pathetic by comparison, and I like those bands. This melodic approach to black metal, dependent on judicious use of keyboards to complement the guitars, is unique and fits to absolute perfection with the medieval theme present throughout. The constant use of fast black metal riffling accentuated by its organic production (you can hear the instruments very well, but nowhere is anything too loud or too polished) allows the keyboards to add their melodic touch without ever falling into the pitfalls of excessive keyboard usage that other bands regularly do. The welding together of the various instruments into a cohesive whole is simply perfect. This includes the drum machine, whose programming is executed flawlessly in that never does the percussion stick out as artificial or fake. The final, essential portion here is the vocal work. Duke Satanaël’s vocals are another highlight of the whole of black metal: he’s capable of making the simplest, briefest rasps all through the recording, giving the EP’s sound a mixture of darkness and evil coming from his vocals and of melody and medieval atmosphere from the instruments.

Only mentioned above, The Rebirth of the Middle Ages is one of the most effective concept EPs in existence. It gives off an extremely authentic medieval vibe from beginning to end, based on imagery (a simple photo of a castle on the cover, Duke Satanaël holding a sword on the back of the booklet) and lyrics which are surprisingly close to the standard black metal themes of many other bands but here they just take on a life of their own. The music truly does evoke the Middle Ages and the lyrics take all of those concepts so dear to black metal (death, war, hatred, blood, darkness) and mixes them into a pure medieval storyline, complete with Black Knights and dark conflicts against the light. The whole concept is so successful because it’s a black metal take on a historical reality, but done with exceptional accuracy. This entire recording is like a perfectly authentic historical book, one of those rare ones who can perfectly summon up the surroundings of the period in question, creating an experience which none of those pathetic methodical or fictional accounts can ever hope to achieve.

The Rebirth of the Middle Ages is a pure masterpiece of evocation translated through one of the most well-constructed black metal recordings in existence. I really do try to stay away from rewarding too many high ratings in my reviews, but what hope is there for such attempts when something like this comes along? I cannot possibly stress just how valuable this recording is within the universe of black metal; get it now!