I'm not sure, whether this is the first ever release of its ilk: A death metal album (or any style of music) accompanied by a book, or perhaps it is the other way around. The book's (a short novel with 70+ pages) story is depicted with 11 aural equivalents. The story is about the end of our world, and what awaits after it.

The book, written by guitarist/vocalist Carl Stjärnlöv, is definitely okay reading. Its biggest merit is the story's uniqueness. It often describe surroundings, people and feelings with utter specificity, generating some very unpleasant and horrific images inside a reader's mind. Sometimes these portrayals go on for too long. Also, the story has some undramatic moments, a bit too many to tell the truth. The book is, in a word, overlong. I personally read the book while listening to the album, but it is not a necessity to read it that way (nobody reads a chapter of the book in so few minutes as an accompanying song lasts for anyway). I rather went for the lyrics after reading the book. The lyrics often take a different point of view about the subject when compared to the novel, e.g. metaphorical viewpoint, and it works well this way, adding to the story. By the way, if you're digesting this, see two music videos from the album, too. So, how is the musical feature, then?

It is massive, but in other than time-related way. Okay, 55 minutes is a lot of music for sure, but when taking into consideration, that it has close to 400 audio channels crammed into whole, it can easily be an earful! Or two... In a nut shell, Diabolical is modern-sounding death metal with symphonic topping. Their metal side is technical and cold death metal. Diabolical do not tread the left hand path of Swedish death metal like Entombed and company, but can be compared to Behemoth, Septic Flesh and Fleshgod Apocalypse, at least to some extent. The three are not similar, but still carry similar traits. Anyway, Diabolical have trod some new paths with this album, and have found more of their own this time around, than on their previous outputs.

Diabolical have succeeded in embedding symphonic and soundtrack elements into metal music. There are some strings such as violin and cello, as well as piano, utilized together with quite a sizeable choir. The choir is singing in Latin and English. The album begins with more soundtrack-like choir that is in vein of old "Omen" movies. The non-metal closer 'Humanitas' at first sounds like a ritual and then Therion-ish. As mentioned, the metal part is cold-sounding. It gets close to black metal output with its tremolo riffing and open-string harmonics. There is fast shredding death metal riffage making the guitar work sound more fat, if still pretty much inhuman. Still it is rather trebly in general. Comfortless and evil guitar melodies fit well with the story of the world's ending. The band fluctuate fluidly between blasting and slower tempos, as these shifts do not feel forced. However, some songs have more hooks than others, and some feel, if not forgettable, but harder to be pinned down. As most of the songs include similar tactics, elements and stylistics, maybe that's why it all ends up feeling scattered. The novel is put into notes better on some tracks than others. The main vocals are harsh and potent growling. More high-pitched growls and shrieking are heard accompanying them. Basically just what one expects from death metal.

This album includes so much things to be found. I'm struggling with the cold, almost machine-like feel, but I cannot but be amazed by the band's performances. The drumming, man... There are as many rhythms structured as on some bands' entire discography! Maybe even more, to tell the truth. It could easily be called as progressive, too. The album is crafted with precision and filled with small details. It sounds very, very clear, and maybe the massive amount of all elements is one reason for machine-like vibe. Surely, at best the music sounds like it was breathing. This album is best ingested with headphones.

The album comes in a hard cover book with a plastic CD holder. Ashen grey/black cover artwork with some glossy golden printing looks very much fitting. The text is printed in quite a big font, so it is easy to read. Some black/white sketches depicting the story can be found, too. In all, this looks professional, and is so, too.

This album leaves a mark to a listener's brain, I bet. It is far from an easy album, and should grant some tasty discoveries for many metal fanatics. Still, I feel I was left outside of the tastiest gems it may hide. It needs more time than some people have. A tough, massive dark nut to crack, this! And I'm still continuing to disentangle it, after one fucking year since its release...

Rating: 7½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
09/17/2014 22:08