I hesitate to use the word “cult” as there so many cult bands from Norway, especially in the field of black metal, but Limbonic Art is a band, or rather a one person project, to be respected. I remember Devilish Impressions, with whom I was associated, starting out and being compared in favourable terms to Limbonic Art. Emperor was always the comparison base for Limbonic Art themselves by virtue of the expansive and bombastic black metal style. For me it’s their originality and invention which really ignite the flame. This is the band’s ninth album since being founded in 1993. The fifth, “The Ultimate Death Worship (2002), remains one of my favourite albums of all. Listening to its evil intensity again nicely warmed me up for listening to “Opus Daemonomical” which appears after a seven-year hiatus.
It will come as no surprise to know that the album starts with a whirlwind of black metal fury and nastiness. “Ad Astra Et Abyssos” is eight minutes but keeps reinventing itself and could have been expressive in five. “Deify Thy Master” continues the nasty and evil intent. The withering riff is strong. Daemon roars manically and expensively. The atmosphere is rancid and uncompromising. “Deify Thy Master” shouts Daemon as the song ends dirtily. “Consigned To The Flames” is blackened agony – object achieved. A choral chant accompanies the next burst of vitriol “Vir Triumphalis”. The riff as ever is bleak amid the furious black clouds. A break takes us into a slower section with the growled defiant line: “I will become what I choose to become”. The end is abrasive, loud and agonising. The prolonged scream and belligerent progress of “I Am Your Demon” reminded me at first of Impaled Nazarene. The riff is withering, the drums trigger and the songs moves forward like a merciless battering ram. This is followed by “The Wrath of Storms”, a relentless black metal hymn. Ending inevitably with the sound of the storm, we are heralded with the loud and bleak introduction to the twelve minute piece “Ars Diavoli”. The mood above the relentlessly violent rhythm is sinister, ominous and blizzard-like. It’s beyond grim out there. Thus ends 50 minutes of unholy creative punishment.
“Opus Daemonical” is as expected an unabated ball of fiery black metal, ugliness, fury and venom. It gets full marks for intensity but I missed the eerie twists or depths of “The Ultimate Death Worship”, which took evil atmosphere to another level. For all its qualities this album isn’t ground-breaking and doesn’t find that level.
(7/10 Andrew Doherty)
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