AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): DEEMTEE — “STRANGE AEONS & DELIRIUMS”

Every durable edifice, even a musical one, must have a solid foundation.

Well, that’s what some people say, probably including most listeners. But music whose foundations are constantly shifting and skidding, as if caught in an earthquake or morphing like some hallucinatory vision, can be far more interesting, even dazzling, if the architect is as talented as the person behind the Spanish band Deemtee.

This observation certainly held true for Deemtee‘s debut album, the aptly named Flawed Synchronization With Reality, which we premiered and reviewed (at great length) four years ago. In attempting to describe it we shared comparative references to Deathspell Omega, Oranssi Pazuzu, Valborg, Blut Aus Nord, and Ved Buens Ende — and repeatedly emphasized how unpredictable (and extraordinary) it was.

Now it’s time for foundations to liquify again, because Deemtee has a new album coming our way on December 7th via the Spanish label Darkness Within (a sub-label of Darkwoods), It also has a very apt title, given the nature of the songs: Strange Aeons & Deliriums.

It wasn’t a given that we would get a second Deemtee album. The project’s alter ego Nightmarer (aka NHT) has also been involved in Garth Arum, As Light Dies, Aegri Somnia, and lots of other bands and projects. But fortunately, the appeal of this Deemtee project as a vehicle for head-spinning creative impulses proved strong enough for him to return to it.

Here’s how the label introduces the new record, which we’re premiering today:

“From the very first notes, NHT plunges us into the abyss, into that black and unfathomable abyss of H.P. Lovecraft‘s myths from which you know that anything could emerge at any moment… that’s exactly what Strange Aeons & Deliriums, his new and bizarre creation, entails: the unexpected, the unpredictable, the unconceivable… yet, it also brings the magnificent, the unbelievable, the colossal… a sensory challenge, a brutal display of delirious ideas, an astonishing masterpiece of avantgarde and alchemical black metal that, no doubt, will transmogrify you forever…”

On the new record NHT performs vocals, guitars, bass, drums, keyboard, violin, percussion, whistle, and Canarian timple (a traditional five-string plucked instrument). As for the vocals, they’re sometimes ugly as sin, often straddling a line between belly-deep growling and gagging, and occasionally braying at the heavens, but NHT shows off his great singing voice too.

As for everything else, which joins with the voices in portraying “the last desperate doomed alliance of humanity against Lovecraftian horrors”, the music bears out the label’s forecasts about experiences that are unpredictable, unexpected, sometimes brutal, sometimes bizarre, but quite often completely enthralling, as it interweaves metal’s harsh aggressiveness with prog-rock and traditional Spanish folk influences.

We’ve spoken of solid and shivering foundations, but the eldritch horror of Cthulhu rose from the sea. And perhaps this was what Deemtee had in mind with the new record’s short opening song, “In Colorful Seas“. It’s indeed colorful, even beguiling, but also eldritch in its tones.

And then, as “Forbidden Fumes” begins, a guitar dances like a lively sprite, the bass transmits a jazzy pulse with a fretless tones, and NHT continues to deploy his excellent singing voice, adding to the song’s engaging aura.

As that song proceeds, the music spins up into greater extravagance through a glorious guitar solo, and then NHT‘s soaring and somber singing begins to sound more demented, the music more jolting, the drumming more rambunctious, the surrounding music more… deliriously glittering. It becomes a fascinating dream, with a truly head-spinning crescendo.

“Forbidden Fumes” has more in common with high-end prog-rock than black metal, though with whiffs of Ved Buen Ende in its fumes, but fans of more metallic extremity will also find things to relish in other songs — and won’t have to wait long to find them, because in “Strange Aeons” NHT uncages his mad vocal bestiary, along with a changing experimental tapestry of dismal, broiling, and queasy instrumentation that puts nerves on end, yet is still strangely enthralling.

And before it ends, it becomes even more enthralling, unfurling a melancholy array of organ-like and accordion-like harmony backed by tribal drums.

We’ve already had colorful seas, but Deemtee also brings us “Color Out of Space“, venturing into the origin realms of other Lovecraftian horrors. There, the insane vocals are again terrorizing as they come and go without warning, but the clear-toned guitars glimmer and glitter, strange and inviting, again like like sprites and wraiths at play, and they levitate too.

Beneath them, the drums provide a rocking snap, aided by big throbbing bass tones with a compulsive effect. Eventually Deemtee spurs the drums into a gallop, the bass sounds perilous, the vocals even more deranged, and the guitars more dire and fearful.

It’s tempting to continue commenting in detail track by track, but we don’t want to be tedious. Maybe it’s enough to say that the remaining three songs continue to wander a winding musical path, with a variety of acoustic instrumentation, ringing keys, and harmonized singing in the moody and mesmerizing folk song, “Last Day“; another mind-bending prog-rock extravaganza in “This Delirium” (which also transforms into something much more extreme, bamboozling, and unsettling); and at last, the acoustic-and-singing experience of “In The Dreamlands They Fall“, which is part ballad and part flamenco, and wholly captivating.

Darkness Within is offering Strange Aeons & Deliriums in an oversized 4-panel digifile, which also includes a 6-page foldable booklet delving into the concept behind the music. Darkness Within states that “the entire package is handmade crafted using exclusive gloss lamination on top-quality heavy-weight cardboard, including a free digital download card”. And it’s limited to 66 hand-numbered copies — so don’t delay.

The label recommends it “for all fans of revolutionary music or bands like Ved Buens Ende, Virus or Voivod…”

ORDER:
https://darkwoods.eu/webstore/en/band/deemtee
https://withinthedarkwoods.bandcamp.com/album/strange-aeons-deliriums

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