Hear what I’m warning you, “Ordo Sancti Daemoni” fifth album by Italian Black Metal band KURGAAL will leave the scene stunned and your mind blowing. Although the backbone of its musicality is heavily influenced by Black Metal from the 90s, mainly Swedish bands like Dark Funeral, Setherial and Marduk, the current sound of KURGAALL however contains a very particular element and I believe that much of this individuality is due to to the guitarist duo Inferith and Thasos. The guys have fantastic chemistry playing together, an exceptional ability on their respective instruments and it is clear that the lead guitar lines have a unique style. You know that thing that happens with some guitarists (Sakis from Rotting Christ, Quorthon from Bathory, just to name a few) who manage to create a method of writing and playing so unique and particular that in any album or project they are involved you will immediately know it. as soon as the first notes sound ¿¿ That’s exactly what happens here and the succession of memorable riffs is uninterrupted, in fact you won’t hear a bad riff on the entire album and even the chosen distortion is perfect. The guys understand Black Metal like few others and manage to make their compositions sound extremely aggressive, violent and totally drenched in a malevolent and satanic energy while full of harmonies and melodic lines. but never letting your songs sound “smooth”; the melodies here only serve to enhance the majestic soundscape of KURGAALL’s music; as a sonic representation of the fallen archangel himself, a terrible, powerful and extremely dangerous yet beautiful entity. And the music emanating from these aforementioned guitars , combined with the precise bass of DeiVorhadorh and the destructive drums of Asmodeus D.D are the perfect vehicle to conduct the blasphemous litanies of Lord Astaroth and his insane vocals and here we must open a parenthesis because it is clear that we perceive in these vocal lines a great emotional charge and a devotional focus totally befitting the lyrics of someone who truly believes in what he is preaching. This is actually, in my opinion, the greatest attribute of “Ordo Sancti Daemoni” because tracks like “Ierofania Diabolica” which opens the album in an overwhelming way after the brief intro “Bow Thee, Oh Tempter”, the title track and above all “ Ancient Serpent”, composition that closes the album, can be considered as true black prayers to the bringer of light. But this occult ritualism never diminishes in the other tracks. Songs like “Le Secret De Satan”, the aforementioned “Ierofania Diabolica” with its disgracefully sensational guitar solo that sent shivers down my spine when I first heard it, “The Grand Design of Pazuzu” with its magnificent chorus (“As above , so below…) seem to bring with them a musical atmosphere more steeped in ferocity and bestiality while tracks like my favorite “Circe”, “Ill Giardino Delle Vergini” with its beautiful strumming beginning and its later guitar harmonies and “Thus Reigned Thy Ancestral Order” manage to convey to the listener a more reflective aura, like a more introspective and restrained occult devotion. The album’s production was smashing with all the instruments sounding clean but organic, without feeling plasticky like it often does these days. The cover art, simple, minimalist, perfect. That’s it… perfection is the word that best describes and sums up “Ordo Sancti Daemoni”. Sniper shot to the forehead that Hammer of Damnation is giving us with this release. Mandatory, totally mandatory and unmissable.
10/10
