Superbia, Avaritia, Luxuria, Invidia, Gula, Ira, Acedia. Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, Sloth. The seven deadly sins.
Most of us automatically think of Fincher’s masterpiece Seven, but some will remember that there is a good black metal who took their name from an inaccurate (chronology-wise) acronym of the seven deadly sins. Hailing from Trondheim in the snow-withered Northern part of Norway, Saligia is a two-man outfit with Ahzari delivering the vocals and doing all the string-work and with V. demolishing the drum-kit.
Ahzari is the mastermind who concocts all the devilish potions on Saligia’s albums which he also did with this third full length that is the follow-up to 2015’ Fonix. And my, my, my – he has used a lot of different potions for this one and all this makes a record of unbelievable depth also sometimes crossing borders others couldn’t climb if they had a ladder to help. But all of it never sounds mechanical or as if it was totally laid out on a drawing board.
The duo seemingly effortless goes from church-like organ intros to thrash-metal nuances, from pure black metal to punk, from shaman-like chant-elements to doomy slow-motion over the course of these seven songs in 43 minutes. And above all is Ahzari’s voice which can be threatening like the lord of the fiery realm and heart-warming like an angelic creature stepping down and burning his wings when touching the secular earth.
The term “ritual” is definitely overly used in metal, but the term can be applied to this record without any doubt. Thinking back on the origin of the band’s name and looking at some of the song titles like “The Feather of Ma’at” (stemming from the old Egyptian ritual of the Weighing of the heart of the deceased) or the title track (Vesaevus was the volcano that erupted in AD 79 and buried Pompeji under its ash) it becomes clear that the band has a deep interest in non-Christian ideas and ancient history. Societies which relied heavily on rituals.
Believe me, this record came as a late surprise to me, but I will make sure not to miss any other release of this Norwegian duo. Neither should any black metal fan with an open ear.
