As we move further into Metal Month III, it's time once again to head on down to that dark cavern of possibilities, hit the button and wonder what the dark dice will roll for us. An unsigned band with no demo tape? A band who recorded one album in 1978 and then split up? A well-known band who play music I hate? Or something good? Yes, it's time to return, for the penultimate time, to
And it would seem that right away we have a winner! Okay, it's yet more black metal (are there no progressive or power metal bands to be found here?) but at least they have albums and are signed to a label.
Name: Barshasketh
Nationality:: New Zealand
Subgenre: Black Metal
Born: 2009
Lineup: Krigeist (Guitar, Bass, Vocals) (F)
GM (Guitars)
BB (Bass)
BH (Drums)
Albums: Defying the Bonds of Cosmic Thraldom (2010),
Sitra Achra (2013) and
Ophidian Henosis (2015)
Live albums: None
Collections/Boxets: None
No information to hand I'm afraid, but it is interesting to note that of the three albums on offer here, both GPM and Spotify have the current one available. So I guess we're going with that, then.
Ophidian Henosis --- Barshasketh --- 2015 (Blut and Eisen Productions)
I've managed to piece together enough information on the title to assume it means either “Oneness or unity with the snake”, “Snake unity” or “Unified snake/serpent” or something along that line. Just as well too, as each of the seven tracks is labelled as part I, II, III etc of the title, so we have “Ophidian henosis part I”, Ophidian henosis part II” and so on. Now that we've got that out of the way, what's the album actually like?
Actually starts off quite nice, with an introspective and ominous guitar, which of course is soon battered away by a harder one and thundering drums, plus the trademark screechy vocal, but all in all there's still some melody retained, and compared to last week's selection this is positively musical! Fast, but not breakneck fast, with a nice guitar riff running through it as we move through part I and it slows down in the fourth minute to a rather nice kind of Egyptian theme, the vocal fading out. It comes back in of course, but the guitars stay slow and melodic, and now we're moving into the final minute. Romping and cantering to the end, and into Part II, where a faster guitar takes the tune, very melodic. Even when the vocal comes in the guitar remains very tuneful, slowing in the second minute, with an almost progressive tilt, really melodic and actually quite beautiful in its way.
I'd just like to take a moment here to applaud whoever wrote the lyrics, at least the lyric for this song, part II. Generally I find black metal lyrics somewhat dour and repetitive, to say nothing of formulaic: praising Satan, cursing humanity, summoning demons, that sort of thing. But here in this song it seems the writer envisages himself (and remember, this is just my interpretation; could be totally wrong) climbing up a hill with his body dragging behind him --- a metaphor for his sins? --- while he watches others rush off into the light and is unable to join them, because that would mean cutting the ties with his body, perhaps seen as an admission of faith? He can't do this, as he says in the final lines
”My dragging body becomes heavy/ As the detritus builds up/ If only I had the will to sever that golden cable/ To float at ease towards the self.”
The really interesting thing here is that in his world, the writer sees his goal above, not below, and identifies it to be “the self”, while below, people weaker than he fall towards the “light of apathy” and allow themselves to be drawn in. His is a harder climb, but with it would seem a greater reward at its end, and here no mention is made either of God or Satan; it's simply a psychological view, climbing towards the self, towards knowledge and fulfillment, instead of letting yourself slide backwards and down into the welcoming arms of warmth and apathy.
These are not, to me, black metal lyrics. Yes, they contain a certain hatred --- well, more a bitter pity really --- for humanity, but so far I've heard no praise of any deity, and it all seems to be very much more a cerebral understanding of things. The music is also not really what I'd call typical of this subgenre, in fact the only thing in my mind that makes this black metal are the vocals. The guitar work is at times almost neoclassical on an Yngwie scale, very impressive, much much better than I had expected. If I had bet my house on how this was going to sound (and if I owned my house, which I don't) I would be living on the streets now. Big surprise, and a pleasant one too. Honestly, so far I haven't heard these guitars be anything but melodic.
Part III slows everything down with a big grinding push, but then it picks up with rattling drums and a really nice riff from the guitar, again very spiritual lyrics, while part IV is faster but has at times an almost swaying quality to the music, and as we move into part V there's that progressive feel again, though that doesn't last as the tempo ups considerably. It's still very melodic though. At times it develops into something approaching a power metal canter, then in the fifth minute it crashes down to a sedate, stately march then speeding up with a lot of drama and excitement for part VI, with a nice chiming sort of instrumental break in the middle.
And that leaves us with part VII, where the circle is completed. In part I the lyric was
”The only true defeat is surrender/The only true death is submission/ There are no martyrs here/ Ours is the path of burning sorrow.” Here at the end that lyric is repeated but the last line is replaced with
”Our is the path of glorious triumph”. With a dark and ominous melody we reach the end of this quite remarkable album.
TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS
Ophidian Henosis, Pt I
Ophidian Henosis, Pt II
Ophidian Henosis, Pt III
Ophidian Henosis, Pt IV
Ophidian Henosis, Pt V
Ophidian Henosis, Pt VI
Ophidian Henosis, Pt VII
I'm extremely impressed by this album, especially as I had not in the least expected to be. I guess that's a salutatory lesson in judging a book by its cover. I'm still not sure I'd classify this as a black metal album, but what I would call it is a really great album, an excellent surprise and one of my triumphs in the long time I've been doing this section. I had hoped that by choosing random bands I would get to know of ones I would otherwise never have heard of, and maybe even get into some of them. That hasn't really happened. Until now.
It may be (though I'd have to check my records) be the first to receive a rating of
