Record of the week
Deathspell Omega, Fas: Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum (Norma Evangelium Diaboli, 2007)
My Buddhist neighbor, who lives downstairs, has been chanting with seven of her friends since 9AM. They are very loud and they woke me up and they are still at it and it's important to mention that it is now 1:30PM. I've been pushed. I'm not into it. I need to establish a blockade.
Today's choice (this happens kind of frequently) for such a blockade is the new Deathspell Omega record, with the above Latin title that I don't feel like typing again. (That title translates into "by divine law, go, you cursed, into the eternal fire." Cheery.) The title and the record draw inspiration from a 15th century morality play titled Everyman, about humanity's journey to God and its attempt to justify its sinful nature. Lofty stuff, and fitting for this French band's avant-garde gestures. The music here is incredibly complex, saturated with flawless time changes and a palpable tension between beauty and cacophonous ugliness. And there's a grim, but astute philosophical bent to the lyrics herein. "Every human not going to the extreme limit is the servant or the enemy of man and the accomplice of a nameless obscenity." When removed from the context of hyperbolic occultism, that can be read as a salient, non-spiritual critique of human complacency. As a public educator, I'm disheartened by many of my students' apathetic attitude toward erudition and intellectual growth. Better to watch some MTV bullshit than to think. Better to seek comfort in the formulae for human stultification, so that late capitalist hegemony may have its way with us. If you're okay with that, take your Rihanna. I'm not drinking the kool-aid.
(On the other hand, maybe I'm really just pissed off about this chanting. Either way, this record is brilliant. Stop chanting.)
