Ordo Malum ~ An Unholy Trinity of Blackened Death
I've said it before and I will say it again... One of the most amazing things about a site like SoundCloud is how it brings artists from around the world into contact with one another so they can pool their evil genius into a dark opus that would have otherwise never happened. If you've been following the blog for a while you are probably familiar with names like Tahazu, Skyggefigurrer and Belzebut who have all been featured on Cemetery Lament at one time or another. Each of these artists have put out a mass of incredible work individually but when you bring their talent together you end up with... well you end up with Ordo Malum an EP of blackened brutality that can only be born in the true underground black metal scene.
Living half a world apart the trio didn't seem to have much trouble pulling this project together with each of them contributing their own unique talents to create a single cohesive vision of darkness that oozes from each of the six tracks. I had the chance to talk with Skyggefigurrer about how this project came together and as you can imagine the story behind this EP is every bit as awesome as the music.
"Belzebut did the drums, programming and synth, Tahazu did vocals and lead guitar, and I did rhythm guitar and bass. Long story short, I met Tahazu on soundcloud after he commented on some of my tracks. I checked out his music and heard how awesome it was and a friendship and musical collaboration was born from that. I met Belzebut after hearing some songs he and Tahazu had collaborated on. I commented and a similar friendship formed between myself and Belzebut. Tahazu and I had collaborated on each other's projects before but Belzebut and I had not yet. We had discussed doing music together but the time was never right as we both had other things going on. After I finally had some free time to work on a new project, I asked Belzebut if he might have some time and he let me know that he indeed had some time and already had a track in the works that he had a drum part finished for and wanted me to do some guitar and bass on it and was going to have Tahazu do vocals. Once the first song was complete, we all immediately knew we had something special and needed to make more songs. And that is how Ordo Malum was born. Of course, you might imagine me being in Detroit, MI, Tahazu being in Madison WI and Belzebut being in Targoviste, Romania might pose some obstacles to this happening. However, all of us are experienced with sending parts of songs back and forth by email so it actually felt very natural. Belzebut would send me a drum track, I would record guitar and bass parts over it, and Tahazu would record vocals and occasionally guitars where he felt some more atmospheric guitar parts were needed. What you hear is the end result of this!" ~ Skyggefigurrer
After setting the tone with the intro Infinite Darkness each of the tracks that follow compliment one another in tone, quality and vision. Tempo and mood changes on tracks like The Black Blight really highlight the talent that this trio have as artist who are capable of more than growling vocals, breakneck guitar riffs and insane drums. Instead you get a well rounded sound of incredible depth and complexity that many "signed" metal bands would do well to take notice of.
"Belzebut did the drums, programming and synth, Tahazu did vocals and lead guitar, and I did rhythm guitar and bass. Long story short, I met Tahazu on soundcloud after he commented on some of my tracks. I checked out his music and heard how awesome it was and a friendship and musical collaboration was born from that. I met Belzebut after hearing some songs he and Tahazu had collaborated on. I commented and a similar friendship formed between myself and Belzebut. Tahazu and I had collaborated on each other's projects before but Belzebut and I had not yet. We had discussed doing music together but the time was never right as we both had other things going on. After I finally had some free time to work on a new project, I asked Belzebut if he might have some time and he let me know that he indeed had some time and already had a track in the works that he had a drum part finished for and wanted me to do some guitar and bass on it and was going to have Tahazu do vocals. Once the first song was complete, we all immediately knew we had something special and needed to make more songs. And that is how Ordo Malum was born. Of course, you might imagine me being in Detroit, MI, Tahazu being in Madison WI and Belzebut being in Targoviste, Romania might pose some obstacles to this happening. However, all of us are experienced with sending parts of songs back and forth by email so it actually felt very natural. Belzebut would send me a drum track, I would record guitar and bass parts over it, and Tahazu would record vocals and occasionally guitars where he felt some more atmospheric guitar parts were needed. What you hear is the end result of this!" ~ Skyggefigurrer
After setting the tone with the intro Infinite Darkness each of the tracks that follow compliment one another in tone, quality and vision. Tempo and mood changes on tracks like The Black Blight really highlight the talent that this trio have as artist who are capable of more than growling vocals, breakneck guitar riffs and insane drums. Instead you get a well rounded sound of incredible depth and complexity that many "signed" metal bands would do well to take notice of.
To say that Ordo Malum is simply "blackened death metal" doesn't really do it justice when you consider the depth of composition that is being presented here. By far my favorite tracks are The Black Blight and Death In Ashes which both feature truly fucking brutal vocals layered over such rich instrumentals and effortless tone and tempo changes that they are almost beautiful in dark complexity.
Currently Ordo Malum is working on a full length album and if this EP is any indication of what we have to look forward to it should go without saying that the full length album will be a fucking masterpiece. Be sure to check out Ordo Malum on SoundCloud and give them a like, share and follow.
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