Whom the Fire Obeys

What the hell happened? Obsidian Gate impressed me with The Nightspectral Voyage, which remains up to this point one of the few albums to strike the magic chordal balance present on Limbonic Art's first two records without unabashedly plagiarizing their style. While Odium also delivered a respectable ode to their Norwegian idols with The Sad Realm of the Stars, the prime pickings in this distinctive field have always been exceptionally meager. Symphonic black metal clogs its parent genre like concrete poured down a toilet, but the bands who practice its damp sorcery tend to adhere to the extreme ends of the spectrum. Extremes that while having their place in the grand scheme, lack the equilibrium present on albums like In Abhorrence Dementia. This is of course why Limbonic Art is one of the most heralded symphonic black metal bands, and why I naturally approached Whom the Fire Obeys with reserved anticipation.

The comparisons between the two acts cease at a point well defined, however. Limbonic Art truly got their shit together when they decided to scale back the orchestrations and ratchet up the riffs on Ad Noctum - Dynasty of Death, an album that is a genre-defining classic and perhaps the best symphonic black metal record of all time. At first blush Whom the Fire Obeys is interesting on a cursory level, as it visually summons parallels to Limbonic Art's masterpiece. Both efforts feature sarcophagi on the front cover and well...that's about where the similarities end. Where Ad Noctum - Dynasty of Death suffocated the listener with a multi-layered approach that simply breaks down over its victim in punishing waves, Whom the Fire Obeys feels like wading through a kiddie pool in comparison.

I gotta hand it to these guys though, they have complete dominance over the Phrygian dominant scale; and while far too many bands use it as a crutch, Obsidian Gate exercises some level of care regarding the orchestrations and it undoubtedly shows. The problem is that there is little else to see! What few riffs of note are present find themselves kneecapped by the piss-weak distortion or the blubbery, all-encompassing inclination of the pretentious keyboards. Perhaps it is a sign of the times, but it is so easy to feign a full orchestra nowadays using mid-level software that it simply fails to enthrall like it should. Ironic that Limbonic Art did it more convincingly fifteen years earlier using preschool-level keyboards on In Abhorrence Dementia.

This wouldn't be grounds for dismissal on its own, but Whom the Fire Obeys is so tonally stagnant that it simply goes in one ear and out of the other. Other than a passable (albeit far too short) doom section in "Khnemu Her-Shef," it's just constant orchestra masturbation with a meager backbone of a riff set that you can barely hear. It sounds like Dimmu Borgir charming snakes, and if you are into that sound and really dig bands that do the Middle-Eastern thing, more power to you. There is a big market for that style of metal, I get that, but it has become weighed down by self-parody just like every other good thing that runs its course.

Obsidian Gate occasionally manage to piece a few solid minutes together, and when that massive brass ensemble kicks in at around the three-minute mark of "Entomb Me Beneath the Glare of Aton" one can certainly see the potential in this approach. The problem is that it is always far too fleeting, with the band constantly chasing its tail as they change sections ad-nauseam in an attempt at disorienting the listener into submission rather than going straight for the jugular like they should. It actually took me over ten minutes of searching to find that last section to spotlight, as everything sounds exactly the same. At its best, Whom the Fire Obeys comes off as a lampooning of Sphynx-era Melechesh without the punchy riffs or a distinctive vocalist. If you are really into the bombastic and enjoy your black metal with a pinch of desert sand, give Whom the Fire Obeys a whirl. This just doesn't cut it for someone aware of Obsidian Gate's early material. I expected more, guys.