De Magia Veterum

Migdal Bavel

Transcendental Creations 2009

Mories, the mastermind behind demented mind-rapists, Gnaw Their Tongues has delved deep into the world of abyssic black metal.  Drawing upon the mystical chaos of the void he unleashes an aural assault that is just as mentally disturbing as Gnaw Their Tongues but from a metallic perspective.  The Confusion of Tongues is a rapidly spinning whirlpool of constantly shifting riffs and manic vocal shrieks.  Insanely twisting drum patterns serve to further unhinge the listener from any sort of solid ground.  The title track continues with this stylistic chaos which is at times spiritual and perverse.  Dissonant guitars and piercing synths stab at the listener from the cacophonous sea of noise.  Half way through the track the turbulence settles somewhat, like the eye of the storm, before once again surging into a tempest of metallic instrumentation.  The Boat of Uta-Naphastim leaves no chance for respite.  However it is is an illustration at how strange and disturbed the music is that while the guitars are riffing aggressively against a back drop of relentlessly restless drumming there surfaces some serene guitar leads on the surface of all this frenzied destruction.  Curse of Cannan opens with some more structured riffing and drum patterns but as suspected, this quickly is subdued and folded underneath tumultuous riffing and percussive programming.  However we are once again witness to tranquil and sorrow-filled melodic leads.   On the final track, Rapture, tremulous melodic riffs, not unlike those on Transilvanian Hunger, are mutated and bastardized and mated with swirling, symphonic keys as any last vestige of sanity has been stripped from your music-addled mind.  Migdal Bavel is not an easy listen to digest but if you can cast yourself into the center of this typhoon of arcane black metal you will be well rewarded.  De Magia Veterum's album swirls like a churning ocean of madness, no harbor can shelter you from this storm.  All that awaits you is endless waves of frothing insanity as carbonized lightning arcs across the night sky.