(Written by Islander)
Despite the fact that the identities of the most infamous progenitors of second-wave black metal, including arsonists, murderers, and the murdered, are very well-known (famous now, as well as infamous), anonymity remains among the more defining characteristics of black metal.
More so than in any other genre of metal, black metal is home to creators who adamantly prefer to let the music speak exclusively for them, without the potential distractions of identity. It’s not just a rejection of “celebrity”, it’s an embrace of obscurity, not just a pervasive use of pseudonyms but a blank space un-filled by any details other than what can be heard.
This iron-clad embrace of an underground ethos where the people making the music allow no light to shine on themselves (and sometimes no light to shine through the darkness of the music) often complicates and almost always undermines the mission of spreading of the word about the music. People who choose not to talk about what they’ve done, or even to tell actual or potential fans anything about who they are, leave more to chance about whether their accomplishments will find an audience.
Which brings us to Sapientia Diaboli, whose name is Latin for “The Wisdom of the Devil”. Maybe it is the Devil’s wisdom they practice by concealing everything except the shuddering impact of their sounds.
Of course it’s easier to remain anonymous when your music draws attention to itself as dramatically as the music of this band. It also helps when it attracts the enthusiasm of a label that’s willing to help spread the word and the music, which is what has happened with the debut album of Sapientia Diaboli.
That album, entitled I ov the Darkness, will be released on August 23rd (today!) by the Belgian label RABAUW, on vinyl LP format. It adds to the band’s discography of shorter releases and appearances that has been building since 2021. To help spread the word further, we’re premiering a full stream of this debut album below.
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In presenting the album, RABAUW has made comparative references to such bands as Nightbringer, Hetroertzen, and Thorns, as well as “unorthodox outliers like Troll’s Neo-Satanic Supremacy or the cult Tsatthoggua“, in an effort to further define the music’s “violent vortex of malodorous mysticism and teeth-gnashing tension” and its “paradoxically ethereal effect”.
The album’s surge encompasses 7 tracks and about 32 minutes of music. The music is indeed unmistakably violent, and it is also certifiably unhallowed and unearthly, strange and spine-shivering. It often seems chillingly hallucinatory, even when it’s in the midst of a full-bore assault.
This unsettling mix of sensations is evident from the very first song, “From the Void I Intone“. On the one hand, the drums blast at inhuman rates of speed and blistering tremolo-picking generates the music. On the other hand, what’s being generated are slowly slithering melodies that generate dismal moods of moaning illness and wailing agony.
In keeping with those contrasts, the vocals begin like dismal and degraded chants but also erupt in throat-ruining screams. Like creeping tendrils, eerie shimmering tones also infiltrate the song, creating an ethereal yet searing sheen. The song thus sounds fanatical and unhinged, and frightening to its core.
In the songs that follow, Sapientia Diaboli perpetuate this warped atmosphere of oppressiveness and wrenching tension, of otherworldly tempestuousness and mind-shearing agony. The vocals remain as ugly as original sin and as shattering as screams within the worst torture chambers, and the crucifying melodies still undulate, ring, and distort, the riffing coated in fuzz and fungus but also accompanied by racing tones that are bright like flames and sharp like well-honed knives.
As the album proceeds, Sapientia Diaboli does change the pacing every now and then, and occasionally introduces brief moments of synthy ambience for extra chill on the listener’s flesh, but there’s no real relent in the feelings of mind-mutilating affliction and utter hopelessness.
Like dissonant chimes, the anti-melodies slowly ring and contort, or they feverishly spiral, gleaming but way too unhealthy to sound like glory. You’ll encounter some rocking grooves and slashing chords too (especially in “Blessed Be the Fire“, which manages to sound haughty), and dancing notes mesmerize within “The Dreaded One“. The sweeping synths also always keep the skies on fire, yet it’s the kind of wonder generated by jaw-dropping fear.
So, to return to where we started, the album speaks for itself, in a language so startling and unsettling, so ravishing and wretched, that its source doesn’t need to be specifically identified. Better to let the mind imagine that this is the work of devils, or at least the product of an intense communion with them.
RABAUW is releasing I ov the Darkness on black/white smoke vinyl and clear vinyl, and you can order those via the links below. It’s also available digitally from the band.
I Ov the Darkness isn’t the only album being released by the RABAUW label today. There are three others the label is providing in physical editions: a remastered version of the Vortex mini-album by Russia’s TEMPLUM ANIMA MORTI; DEVOURING FAMINE’s debut album, Haunting Echoes; and The Seal of Vampyric Tyranny, a split album between SANGUINE WOUNDS and DEVOURING FAMINE.
You’ll find evocative descriptions of all those releases at the label’s web site here.
ORDER I ov the Darkness:
https://www.rabauw.com/catalog
https://sapientiadiaboli.bandcamp.com/album/i-ov-the-darkness
https://rabauw.bandcamp.com
SAPIENTIA DIABOLI:
https://sapientiadiaboli.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4y2GNVm37qQ3ui0T6xHwVf