At the end of April this year the Indian black metal band Démonos released their astounding debut album Anno Daemonium. Over the space of two consecutive Shades of Black columns we attempted to review it, in stages that aligned with the unfolding of the album’s tracks. Experiencing it that way created increasing surprises that were difficult to sum up. The path through the album is not a straight and narrow one. As we wrote in the second phase of the review:

“That trip sometimes feels like being caged with a feral beast and no way out. At other times it feels like someone slipped acid under your tongue without your knowing until it kicked in. At still other times, you might feel teleported into a burial ground as a piano plays a hopeless lament, with the wails of mourners in the background, or into a sonic aurora borealis that glitters and drifts in wondrous colors while the bass throbs.”

And all that happens in just the second song, “Vesper Evocation“, which further includes the solemn tones of a church organ at the end.

We spent several substantial paragraphs here attempting to describe the experience of the three-part opening track “Magma Stigmata“, and there are still five more to come after those two. With each one, Démonos manages to bring in something you haven’t heard in the preceding tracks, both vocally and instrumentally, and in their moods. In other words, there are surprises galore, some of them like sorcery, some of them frightening, some of them spellbinding, some of them ugly, none of them dull.

Today we have the chance to further highlight the album’s third song, “Your Ascension is a Mere Illusion“, thanks to a fascinating video for it that we’re now premiering. The song itself is fascinating, in both its inspiration and its effects on the listener. Here is what Démonos says about its subject: Continue reading »