Origin: Norrköping, Östergötland/Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪
Genre: Black Metal
“The materialization of existence must and will be inverted, emanation by emanation, for it is a curse life has inflicted upon itself through manifestation.”
~Michayah Belfagor
Since 1996, Ofermod, have been one of the notoriously occult-driven Swedish black metal scene’s most precious gems. With its art beholden to Qliphoth – the antithesis to cosmic order, this highly influential institution has – since their inception – been a monolith for black metal in its true Satanic form. It’s been of direct inspiration to bands like Watain along with pretty much every other Swedish black metal outfit to have emerged out of the new wave of black metal.
Ofermod were notorious and basically feared within the Swedish black metal scene. Mastermind Michayah Belfagor was violent, unpredictable and usually high on heroin. Furthermore, Belfagor was in and out of jail on a regular basis due to his involvement with street gangs. He eventually gave up that reckless way of living in order to focus on his music and his esoteric studies.
Michayah Belfagor states that Ofermod’s music is created through meditation and astral projection while in a trance state. He has travelled long and far upon the Left Hand Path from the olde Devil worshipping ways of the band’s first days – now driven upon a more spiritual current – Ofermod being the product of such esoteric ventures. Now, as Earth and all life within it begin to descend into the onset of apocalypse, Ofermod are preparing to open their sixth seal. On November 25, “Ofermodian Litanies” will be released by Shadow Records in conspiracy with Regain Records.
With “Ofermodian Litanies”, Ofermod transcend the confines of orthodox black metal into the further reaches of the genre – a higher plane where bands like Thy Darkened Shade, Mortuus and Serpent Noir dwell and wherefrom they cast their destructive emanations upon our world. This mini-album unfurls five cosmic order-asundering spells that combined play out like a full-length LP and provide more than a glance into the realms of Chaos-Gnosticism, Qliphoth and Satanism. We’re talking Horna – “Kuoleman Kirjo” level wickedness that pulsates from within the violent rip current of inertia-inducing cuts like the opener “Mundus Imaginalis” and “A Million Serpents Dance” that blast you into a diabolical fourth dimension upon driving blast-beats and steamrolling guitar riffs. The blackest magick in the form of time & tradition, but also ingenuity-honoring, Swedish BM – a masterfully produced specimen of a recording…
Ofermod ignite their offering to The Father in “Litany of the Lascivious Lucifuga” – a powerful black metal symphony consisting of the most alluring riffs and the most fluid of double-bass currents that ebb into violent onslaughts of jackhammer rhythms and towering, blackened death progressions. Every track on the record unique in its own right yet bound to the next by the same adversarial energy. After a Behexen level of brutality is reached in “Chaos Reverberation”, the experience culminates with “Tiamtü” – a slow-burner that drags you deep through some of the genre’s most abysmal environments – stirring up a maelstrom of both Morbid Angel worshipping death metal vibes and deep ritualistic black metal overtones.
When black metal is created with authentic ties to occultism as opposed to the superficial and naive approaches taken by bands like Dark Funeral, the result is usually something to behold. “Ofermodian Litanies” stands as a beacon for this truth; sending its infernal signal out through the blackened azure to those with a lust for the Left Hand way and the beauty therein. A near perfect EP. The only tragedy being the fact that – if this recording contained a few more tracks – it would undoubtedly go down as this band’s album to be remembered by. Now, prepare to witness the great inversion of all things as our feeble existence and all cosmic order collapse to the sound true Swedish black metal…
9.5/10
Experience “Tiamtü” from “Ofermodian Litanies” right here:
~Jeger
