Go to hell to feel alive!
A clear sign of warning my dear reader and fellow music nerd, you´re about to approach a hostile and forbidden area, from where they may not be a way back. This review might lead you to a swirling aural vortex, that will pull you into an unfriendly, otherwordly and lethal environment where no human being should venture or be able to survive.
This sophomore full-length, six track and 36 minute record from US bestial esoteric black/death metal three-piece Diabolic Oath is truly a worthy new standard bearer of the grotesque, horrendous and otherworldly dread. A destructive and bewildering force of evil incarnate. Shapeless, formless and free of any boundaries.
“Oracular Hexations” is atmospheric and dense, draped in terrific production and ambiance of esoteric horror. It veers fluently and cohesively from neck-breaking groove to chaotic technical progressions to pummeling low-, mid- and high paced sections, even within a single track. Everything is buzzing, screaming, pummeling, bursting, wailing and reeking, accented by the prominent fretless bass/guitar and thrillingly weird guitar soloing acting as a dizzyingly spinning and pulsating noise. On top of that, all of this is accompanied by an engaging triple (sometimes simultaneous) vocal attack. Abysmal growls, crusty howls and frantic shrieks delivering cryptic and abstruse incantations of cosmological, multi-dimensional and impossible states of being.
Diabolic Oath provides sophisticated barbarism. Each track has its signature parts, which add to the replay value of the record, as does its diversity through the inclusion of varied guitar effects and atmospheric soundscapes. It is a surprisingly multi-layered record, although based on a Bestial Blackened Death and War Metal foundation. It is still raw in delivery. Pure rage unaffected by reason.
But unlike fellow devastators Teitanblood, Ceremonial Bloodbath, Impetuous Ritual, Diocletian, Revenge and Black Curse, they also incorporate textures that shine through the murkiness, with a potent psychedelic and cerebral quality, transforming the usually dogmatic War Metal sound into a highly varied, crushingly heavy and even majestic new amalgation. Something that becomes more and more obvious in the course of the record.
Everything kicks off with “Rusted Madness Tethering Misbegotten Haruspices” and an evil entity lurking somwhere in the depths of the void, its dreadful voice directly leading into an irresistable groove, to fast paced chaos, soloing and back to the bulldozer groove. Already in this first track you get the full display of what the record and Diabolic Oath is all about. Think of a bestial Blood Incantation. Second track “Serpent Coils Suffocating the Mortal Wound” introduces itself with a chaotic blast fest, but in the further course of the track you get again this wave -like back and forth between punchy blasts and head bobbing groove. At the end, however, the first ambient soundscape come into play and break up the established structure, further strengthening the ominous atmospheric undercurrent.
This continues with the following tracks “Winged Ouroboros Mutating Unto Gold” and “Fragmented Hymns from the Globulous Cruciger”, where more melodic facets creep out of the murk with stronger reccuring themes. By the end of “Fragmented Hymns from the Globulous Cruciger” you know that you have arrived at this record´s crossroads. Something will change and yes, it does.
The last two tracks “Gathering Hordes from the Outer Worlds” and “Oracular Hexations Leeching” comprise half of the total playing time of the album. Even though you get all the familiar sonic ingredients, they are now worked out longer, which intensifies the atmosphere of the record immensely. It gains epic proportions, even conveying a sacral atmosphere at the end of both tracks due to the use of choir like synths.
An ending that one would not have expected and that makes the record all the more interesting. Its a majestic trip through a form of hell. 36 varied minutes of crushingly heavy tension that brings relief and aural joy for the intiated and friends of abyssal art. Over and over again.
