Genre: Black Metal
Label: Mistica Funebre Productions
Line Up: Diabolical Egipan 666 : all instruments
"Aeon II: Sigillum I.A.O. (1994-2003)" is the title of the collection of demos, 7 "and 10" by the Italian one-man band, Okkultum Magnificentia, a solo project that sees the light, as specified in the title of the work precisely, almost thirty years ago at the behest of Diabolical Egipan 666.
Fundamental for listening to this work is to contextualise the compositions in reference to the years in which they came to life, however, a decidedly avant-garde attitude of the mastermind emerges that proposes inserts of sonic violence far from the canonical Black Metal that was born in that period.
A wave of wild anger, present in all the songs, overwhelms the listener, the melody is almost absent in favour of a disturbing sound wall made up of hypnotic obsessive riffs and dissonances; to find a reference one can mention Mysticum or Aborym and, although distant both as themes and as a proposal, Enslaved "Frost" also come to mind, mainly for the coldness of the sounds and the impetus of the songs.
The production is somewhat raw, some stop-and-go, almost forced, and could be approached to Mütiilation.
The drum machine, programmed at times in a deliberately inhuman way, mechanical if necessary, the icy guitars, the bass, almost imperceptible, and a well-reverberated evil screaming, make up the complete package of about fifty minutes of occult Black Metal that no one would suspect coming from nearly thirty years ago: songs that do not feel the weight of the years at all, but which, on the contrary, prove to be pleasant listening even today.
Ultimately, an album to be savoured in its entirety to fully know this musical entity that sees in "Effluvius" and "A Shadow Above The Ruins", in the opinion of the writer, his best songs, impossible not to recommend listening to!
Andrea B.
