I can still vividly remember coming across Joined in Darkness at my local record store over 20 years ago, and though I was at the time completely unfamiliar with that album, I decided to make the purchase simply because it “looked cool.” It has remained a personal favorite from the moment I first heard its dismal currents alongside Ixithra’s chilling whispers, and new releases from DEMONCY have been eagerly awaited ever since. Now they emerge from shadowy planes once again to afflict the 2020’s with their newest aural plagues, which include a full-length curse in the form of Black Star Gnosis, and then a compounding dose of malevolence follows swiftly through an EP titled Diabolica Blasphemiae. Both will be given attention here as the most powerful aspects of multiple DEMONCY eras are wielded, and together they cast an impure mark for 2023 that likewise infects the new year.
Baleful entities lurk within the astral void of “Across the Setian Planes,” and ominous vibrations are concentrated further in the ritual ambience joined with that presence, leading to the fully manifest abominations ravaging on “Ipsissimus of Shadows.” Its deep tremolo and blast-beaten storm reverberates with a familiar cavernous appeal, and the darkness of past workings is also reflected when structural shifts expand the primordial murk, which culminates by summoning dual riff layers ahead toward the title track’s pointed radiance. Tremolo melodies persist across tortuous courses there, like demons raging chaotically outside the magick circle, and their frenzy dissipates for a slow and doomy passage with dissonance striking forcefully in its chords. Similarly menacing tones are perceived as “Cosmic Curse Invocation” commences, and speed soon accompanies the power, with some currents distinguished by fleeting notes that mark advances in this craft. Ixithra’s unique vocals are always the preferred medium for DEMONCY’s verbal hostilities, and they remain potent while being noted here for patterns that bombard the mass with destructive incantations.
Ambient realms are revisited on “Syzygy of Unholy Trinity,” and the dominance of those nefarious specters from the opening rite is reasserted here while ill-omened variants align toward a trance intensifying on “De Mysterium Noctis.” This is perceived in the repetitions and intervallic sway of its riffs, demonstrating this art’s known hypnotic quality at different levels, and a heightened convergence develops before “Performing the Ceremonies of Tragedy” casts the next act of demise. Focus is drawn noteworthily into the depths of its brooding lead riff, where the shadows extend through two-noted combinations reverberating with demented tones, and this shape later transfers to tremolos flowing in a way that forms perhaps my favorite moment of the entire work. A hammer-pulled melody strikes within the entrancement of “Cosmic Curse Expulsion,” and that altered state is brought to a point across multiple riffing patterns, which invoke further intrigue in how they drift and fade into “Occultation of Typhon.” Its ambience carries their substance with otherworldly effects that stand apart from the preceding interludes, and the culmination reflects a higher attainment to close the ritual in singular blackness.
One downside to mention is that three of the nine tracks are ambient, and they are each prolonged at over four minutes. With a total duration of under thirty-five minutes, only about twenty-three minutes are left for the metal exercises, and so including one or two more of those while trimming down the interludes could have strengthened this offering. As if to remedy that slight flaw, Black Star Gnosis was quickly followed by the EP titled Diabolica Blasphemiae, and it begins with “Satanas Vult,” a more suitably timed initiation with solemn and disturbed auras leading into the title track. A production quality and structures differing somewhat from the primitive levels of Black Star Gnosis are revealed here, and they are instead more comparable to what took form on conjurings like Enthroned is the Night, which helps distinguish it as a piece completely independent of the full-length. An allure is driven by multiple rhythmic courses in its riffing, along with points that slow for hellish emphasis, and these elements persist among the forces escalating on “Sepulcrum Specularum.” Its frenzied tremolos and grooved transitions are compounded when a sliding riff emerges, and it descends into headbang-inducing extremes before “Malum Incarnatus Est” harnesses further chaotic influences. Their arranged complexity extends also to a continuum of evasive structural shifts, and this wrath is sustained until arriving at “Consummatum Est,” where sounds evoke the likeness of temples in densely forested ruins to bring a reflective conclusion.
Words of destruction are rampant in the verses coinciding with these orchestrations, and their adept draw on the mysteries is first observed during “Ipsissimus of Shadows,” where a dark attainment through the void’s infinite potential brings “To manifestation the whole of arcane desires.” This state is also noted among the several points described on “Black Star Gnosis,” which seeks illumination by “Traveling clandestine paths into dimensions unknown,” and it provides sight beyond the material veil while other lines are suggestive of dissolving and reforming the self. An “Inverted flow against the current of life” permeates these acts, and “Cosmic Curse Invocation” maximizes that force with malign concentrations designed to wreak annihilation on one’s entire being. Its wrath abounds with potent references, including the complete terror raised from “Phobos and Deimos,” and the German language is also employed to seal the afflictions before reaching “A cold and dark forest veiled in eternal mystery” on “De Mysterium Noctis.” This joins deeper atmospheric scenery to the rites, and the grim awakening on “Performing the Ceremonies of Tragedy” is laden with similar nightside details, along with the “Aristocracy of Night” and “A bloodline glorified” leading to an immersion with oblivion on “Cosmic Curse Expulsion.” Here a cursed soul is finally liberated only to drown in its vacuum and “Sea of amnesia,” and the madness behind existence is reflected to complete what has culminated over each successive hymn.
Abominations persist on the Diabolica Blasphemiae side, with forces conjured by “Sorcerers of nascent planes” during its lead rite that are intent on snuffing the light, and “Concealed altars of perversion adorned with decayed flesh” marks one instance of the vile ritual imagery detailed there. The “Weaponized sigils aligned” achieve a dark triumph before engaging the depraved acts of “Sepulcrum Specularum,” where undead creatures from a “Rabid cult of death” take part in “Orgies of disease and morbid consummation,” and the post-apocalyptic madness of these revelries is fully displayed while being exalted in “Monuments of hate towering above decimated planes.” A decisive manifestation is inflicted through “Ancient words of magic bound in spells of death” on “Malum Incarnatus Est,” and its “Demonic horrors summoned from slaughter and sacrifice” ravage any remaining holiness, which ultimately leaves “Light dying under shadows reign.” There was difficulty in deciding which lyrical lines to highlight, because they are all constructed in a way that gives each its own sinister scene, and the power behind every word shows what endless and imaginative possibilities lie within the darkness.
It was a long wait for sure, but yearnings are finally satisfied as DEMONCY’s return brings forth two offerings that reflect the best of multiple worlds. Black Star Gnosis succeeds in revisiting the past to recapture some of the timeless magick from Joined in Darkness, and Diabolica Blasphemiae acts as a supplement to its shadows while forwarding other dimensions of the songcraft. These works also demonstrate enough progression to revitalize familiar spirits without sacrificing their proven methods of conjuration, and my only wish would be to have even more of them. DEMONCY can’t be faulted in striving for quality over quantity, however, and both releases together are certainly a personal year highlight with material sufficient for extensive contemplation, but hopefully it won’t be another eleven years before the next atrocities manifest.
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