Label: Narcoleptica Productions
Origin: Viterbo, Italy
For a four song EP (three — if you don’t count the brief intro), Ad Omega incubates a surprising culture of blackened variety into their sophomore effort, Golden Age in Blasphemy. Noktvrnal (vocals and guitars) and Phersu (everything else) blaze a winding path through the annals of the black metal library, dismantling encyclopedias of history and abstract art to create a passionate canvas of chaotic insanity. Just as an impressionist imparts thousands of tiny strokes to create a stunning painting, Ad Omega layers every track with precisely timed inflections of evil that reveal a beautiful listening experience.
Following up on their 2019 debut, Luciferian Climax, Golden Age of Blasphemy cuts out the noise, maintains complexity, and narrows the focus. The album artwork conveys the mood — this is the soundtrack of tortured demons entrapped within gnarled roots of a decaying forest, desperate to escape only to find a churning sea of blackness beyond. Noktvrnals’s vocals consist of lengthier, more muddled growls than those of traditional black metallers of the past, which enhance the impending doom and confused dread of the unfortunate soul who has wandered into this dimensionless void. Musically, Golden Age of Blasphemy is contained within a tightly polished onyx chalice. Minor chords throughout the EP pull out the traditional roots of black metal, while the brilliantly composed electronic drums keep this winding beast goose-stepping through every room of the underworld.
Standout track, “Great Mother Lilith,” breathes frozen hatred into the fiery world of Golden Age of Blasphemy. The character of Lilith is a dark moon goddess consistent with her translation in Hebrew: night monster. She is worshipped by modern Satanists, and considered an equivalent of the demonic Hindu figure of Kali. Many hold that the term lullaby originated from desperate pleas of “Lilith-Abi,” Hebrew for “Lilith, begone!” Ad Omega have brought this wicked woman into their world, and flushed out her every evil trait in a slowly burning sermon of impending doom. Not without switchblades up their sleeves, “Great Mother Lilith” somehow elegantly transitions to symphonic and peaceful orchestra music, fitting for Sunday Mass. Service doesn’t last long, though: soon the entire church is torched, as Ad Omega return with an enraged sonic assault that persists throughout the remainder of the entire album.
Great Mother Lilith (10:10 - 17:18) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txi3ymSmCeA
“Non Serviam,” Latin for “I will not serve,” sentences the listener to a rusted dungeon trapped under miles of rock, and makes it clear that Ad Omega, in fact, will not serve. This middle finger is flipped throughout Golden Age of Blasphemy. “Lux(I)Fer” charges out of the gate with a primal scream and classic riffage structured to honor the old days of black metal. Not a minute in, however, the leads pump blood into anesthetizing piano that sedates the listener: this is not your father’s black metal band. This brief section calls to mind the innovativeness of Emperor when they recorded a split with Thorns that birthed such evil as “I Am,” as well as letting Ulver remix their masterpiece, “Sworn.” The rare injection of produced synth playing off of the raw evil throws one in a nostalgic trip from the 90’s. Slowing down the pace allows Phersu’s guitars to pierce the eardrums, spoken word and blasted drums juxtaposition each other until Noktvrnal’s vocals violently roundhouse the track in the teeth. While the bookends of this album contain twists and turns in pace and content, “Heretical Path” burns a relentless magmatic highway into hell. Anger and resentment show their skin through bony black metal scales, while a soaring solo brings this enraged diatribe to a swift end.
Golden Age in Blasphemy is a surprising, aggressive, and bleak take on modern black metal. Noktvrnal and Phersu have concocted symphonic stylings and raw anger into a successfully daring entry in the catalog of the musically extreme. This EP shops through years of black metal history with style, tactfully using ingredients from each sub-genre and mixing them with the skill of an executive chef. This band has been releasing music for only a year; with Golden Age in Blasphemy, Ad Omega have rocketed to the forefront of electric resistance.
FFO: Emperor, Dissection, Satyricon, Thorns