Opus Diaboli

Sado Sathanas's Opus Diaboli is overtly completely, and intimidatingly, Satanic. Under the surface, things are different. Despite looking completely dark and evil with purple and pentagrams and long hair and esotericism, the music itself is very emotional, sensitive, melodic, and a little vulnerable. There's no hyper-extreme harshness here, and the naturalistic, warm production allows all the instruments to shine, and why not throw in a bunch of acoustic guitars, instrumental interludes, and strange cinematic samples. Instead of being disappointed with how shimmery and engaging Opus Diaboli is, it's actually fun to revel in the songmanship, and nicely mixed drums.

So, yes, there is blasting here, but on well mic'ed drum kit, and the cymbals are pinging and hissing like liquid silver, and the snare is wood shaped by metal, refined yet organic, with a nice pop and snap. It's hard to tell if it's a triggered kit or just a really well produced drum sound, but in any event it has that catchiness and human energy that mostly you get from acoustic drum kits. They've set up the kit sound really punchy so the ethereal keyboards and odd drum patterns all through Opus Diaboli don't get away from your ears. They really let the ride cymbal sing; if you do it right the cymbals should announce their own melodies, you don't have to do much.

The guitars are set nicely behind the keyboards, big drums, and agonised vocals. The harsh, growled, and grunted vocals on Opus Diaboli are the most traditional black metal element delivered by Sado Sathanas. Musically, this German brand of black metal is a little akin to Agalloch, and a little like Sentenced with blast beats. At first Opus Diaboli sounds like it must be Southern European or some other non Nordic branch of black metal, as the arty, melancholic feel is quite different from Nordic black metal, and even from the rainy, sodden black metal from the British Isles. One downside to Opus Diaboli is that even though there is plenty of warmth and heart in the mix, there isn't as much bass as you'd like. It's definitely there but mainly as added girth to the guitar lines, and without headphones you won't hear it.

The drum patterns are a little similar to Bill Bruford style prog awkwardness, and even borrow a little bit from dance music; make the kick drums, snare, and metronome cymbal prominent, and all the musical wanderings, glitches, and imperfections can flow in and out of different emotional territories, without anything becoming unfocussed or too soft. Lyrically Sado Sathanas deliver poignancy, morbidity, and occult poetry. You can tell Opus Diaboli isn't a collection of tropes, that every inch of music and lyrics and concept has been poured over and brought to just the right level of grimness and melody. Nice to hear native languages instead of English, too. Translating from the German, we learn on Winds Over Wasteland,

Loneliness toward the star of the world
'Cause billions of ghosts are asleep
Bedded in magnanimity
In the safe cradle of their fathers
Worms crawl on the ground
Who sows a seed of ridicule spawned
But a ghost heard the eating... Winds over wasteland!

T.O.T.H. features a melodeath main riff, and some death grunting straight out of 1992, and Veitstanz carries forth a nice punkish black & roll vibe, and over the course of 16 songs you'll get a really intriguing mix of jagged melodies, mysterious elegaic passages, excellent use of keyboards, and a really wide ranging sonic palette covering a lot of music styles, sometimes straight-up, sometimes just a hint, or as mentioned the clever borrowing of dance music's approach to drumming. With songs like Ein Kampf, and Anti-INRI, you know you're in anti-religious territory, but of course everything on Opus Diaboli is dripping in theatre and incense and choral music borrowings.

So while Opus Diaboli is definitely black metal, it's of a kind that uncovers more than it covers up, and is a pretty deep, enchanting, dark, and meditative album. By being about human-level mysteries, and not so much about chaotic freezing cold black energies, it makes Sado Sathanas seem quite mature, and in black metal maturity, context, nuance, and sensitivity are sometimes lacking, after all. Everything on Opus Diaboli is very unusual and artful. Everything is emotional, and considered, and passionately played. Instead of being anti-human, it's all extremely human, and best enjoyed in darkness and reflection. Opus Diaboli is a masterwork for the devil, but really it's about you, your soul, and of course why shouldn't such an album, oddly for black metal, itself be full of soul?