ILL OMEN: "Divinity Through Un-creation"

It always amazes me how it can be Australia that summons some of the darkest black metal out there right now, and this is very much thanks to Ill Omen along with such related names as Atra and Temple Nightside. These bands, that consider themselves as a part of OAA - a certain brotherhood I presume – share a very similar sound and aesthetic. While there are minor differences, like Temple Nightside having a slighty more deathened edge, the same pitch black, haunting, horrorful atmosphere connects all these acts.

Ill Omen has finally reached the release of their debut full-length after various demos and an EP (all in the record shelves of yours truly) and this major opus is known by the name Divinity Through Un-creation. Within the eerie vocal bookends (”Utterance Befell the Curse”, ”Of Those Silenced...”) reside seven tracks of dusty, primitive and sinister black metal laden with heaps of reverb that only builds the harrowing feeling of the album, and it certainly makes sure that this is not about tight guitar riffs, this is about an atmosphere that has been evoked from the deepest hells. A ritual.

Musically, I had hard time with Divinity Through Un-creation at first because it sounds so close to its earlier records as well as those brother bands I mentioned. To enjoy the album from a more neutral point of view, it was mandatory to try to neglect the sameness of the music compared to Ill Omen's back catalogue, and focus on what the band offerd right here and right now. Only after that I realize that these songs are certainly the finest handwork of the band: not that the album ever surprises its listener, but the evil and ghostly riffs have just about enough catchiness in them to be rememberable, like on the first proper track ”Sins of the Flesh” that has probably the simpliest 'old school' riffs of the bunch, or the sweet interplay between the slowly plucked and rapidly tremolo fired guitar inferno at ”Sentinels Beneath a Heaving Earth”. Or the latent melancholy within the oppressiveness of ”Gnosis” or... By now I realize that I could mention certain highlight moments from every track, which is a very good sign.

Divinity Through Un-creation opened slowly, so please do give it enough time and try forgetting the similarities to earlier works. The overall atmosphere has always been top-notch on OAA recordings and while this album does not differ at all at that, it is the slightly better songwriting that makes Divinity Through Un-creation a tad better effort, probably my favourite piece of Australian black metal from 2011 along with Drowning the Light's Oceans of Eternity and Pestilential Shadows' Depths.

4 / 5