Review by Fernando on December 11, 2020.

One of the greatest pleasures I get from listening to black metal is coming across some amazing bands that, while may not have much attention or fanfare, still manage to be some of the best extreme music you can find. Ondskapt is one such example, and after ten long years, including waiting till the tail end of one of the worst years in recent times, Mighty Ondskapt have made their triumphant return with their fourth opus Grimoire Ordo Devus, released by Osmose Productions.

Ondskapt is a Swedish black metal band from the same generation that spawned more well-known outfits like Watain and Shining. Like those bands, Ondskapt rose to prominence in the mid 2000’s with their outstanding debut and sophomore records, however, despite their excellent music, the band has had a rocky existence, plagued by extended hiatuses, and several lineup changes. However, in spite of the many trials and tribulations they’ve gone through their music is never bad. And for their fourth record Ondskapt both continue to evolve their art while maintaining the sinister sound that their devoted fan base has come to love.

Ondskapt have been praised for their particular brand of black metal, that being a style of black metal that in a nutshell is utterly dark and sinister. While most people associate Swedish black metal with the fast melodies of Dissection and Ondskapt's more popular contemporaries Watain, for these Orthodox Satanists, their music is much more morose in, like I said, a sinister way. Sinister to the point where their songs and compositions have more in common with funeral dirges than traditional heavy metal music and they consistently displayed that sound from their debut EP all the way up to their critically acclaimed third album Arisen from the Ashes. For this new opus the band have actually had a massive shift in their compositions; the music is much more complex and has their most overtly metal-centric tendencies to date, no doubt the input of the band’s current members, since the only original member left in the band is front man and co-founder Acerbus.

In regards to the music, the standouts who gave the band that nudge into pure metal are the guitar and bass work of J. Megiddo and Gefandi Ör Andlät, respectively. The former was able to adapt surprisingly well to the band’s style and also brought a complexity and technical proficiency in the guitars that wasn’t present in previous albums through solos, disharmonic melodies and relentlessly fast riffs. The same can be said of the latter; his forceful and pulsating bass lines complement the guitars and even pop out, as heard on tracks like 'Devotum in Legione' and 'Old and Hideous'. Rounding up band’s instrumental section is the drumming of Daemonum Subeunt and to me, this man steals the show. Not only is his drumming a perfect complement to the guitars and bass, but the way he switches from blast beats and double bass beats to traditional heavy metal fills and rhythms is simply jaw dropping. Replacing the likes of former member and co-founder Nabemih and Jocke Walgren of Amon Amarth fame must’ve been no easy task but Daemonum Subeunt rose to the occasion and triumphed in completing this new more complex sound the band sought to achieve. And of course, no talk of Ondskapt would be complete without mentioning front man Acerbus; his distinct tortured wails are as demented and unsettling as ever, and both complete the mood and perfectly fit with the new more complex sound the band created here. Its surprising how tight this quartet sounds when this lineup has only been together for just over a year.

However, while veteran fans of the band might cry foul at Ondskapt leaning heavily into metal for this record when the band’s uniqueness rested solely on their ability to create funeral-like atmospheres, the band hasn’t discarded those signature atmospheric tendencies, far from it. Both the complex instrumentation the new members brought and the band’s style were perfectly melded. They certainly focused more on making a “metal” album, but the dark atmosphere is still present and the album’s composition and pace has two distinctive halves. The first half being pure black metal and the second half being where the band slows down and focuses on creating a darker mood before going back to the speed. This is best heard in tracks like 'Possession' and 'Excision' which start with an ominous guitar melody that leads to a darker sound before bursting into utter insanity. And as a side note, for the aforementioned track 'Possession' and album’s intro track 'Prelude' the band sampled the 2015 movie “The Witch”, and it works fantastically on both tracks.

Overall the decade long wait it took for Ondskapt to release this beast of an album, and in the throes of a very shitty year, was ultimately worth it, and the only major criticism I have is that the vocals of Acerbus are mixed a little too far from the other instruments and in some areas the bass and guitar overtake the vocals. Thankfully this doesn’t detract from how good the album as a whole sounds and in fact this is Ondskapt’s most polished and refined album. For other black metal bands, a cleaner production would’ve been detrimental to their music, but for Ondskapt it sounds exactly as it needed to sound. The crisp production makes all the instrumentation sound great. In conclusion the triumphant return of Ondskapt was everything I could’ve expected and more and fans of the band, as well as newcomers should give it a go, and descend into Ondskapt's nightmarish abyss.

Best tracks: 'Semita Sinistram', 'Devotum in Legione', 'Animam Malam Daemonium', 'Paragon Belial', 'Possession, Excision'

Rating: 9.4 out of 10