Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice

Many metal bands – though fewer than the genre’s detractors probably think – employ Satanic iconography and lyrical imagery in their work. And of those that do, the majority take an almost cartoonish approach, celebrating the Lucifer of pop culture. French black metal band Deathspell Omega, on the other hand, takes a rigorous, probing approach to Christianity and Satanism on Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice (translation: If You Need A Monument, Look Around). The 2004 album is the first volume in a trilogy, followed by 2007’s FAS – Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum (translation: Go, You Cursed Ones, Into Eternal Fire) and 2010’s Paracletus. The lyrics on SMRC are written as prayers, seemingly sometimes directed at the Christian god and other times at Satan. They’re delivered in a babel of voices – the hoarse, guttural roar of extreme metal, but also a more anguished kind of screaming, and in a surprising touch, an all-male chorus reminiscent of Russian orthodox church music (think Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil). The music, too, is extremely artful and layered, combining the blasting drums and buzzsaw riffs expected of a black metal band with thick industrial noise, classical interludes, and ominous atmospheres. At 78 minutes, it’s a lot, but there’s enough variety that it never becomes tedious or rote. Every element of this album has been thought through and assembled with extraordinary care, from the lyrics to the music to the mixing. It’s a genuinely epic work of religious art, taking faith seriously and demanding to be taken just as seriously itself.