Photo by Nicolai Karlsen

Five weeks before the release of DØDSENGEL‘s fifth album, “Bab Al On“, the Norwegian Black Metal duo presents a second sinister invocation. In collaboration with Decibel, Debemur Morti Productions proudly premiere ‘In the Heart of the World‘, an over nine-minute-long hypnotizing hymn honoring Thelemic mysteries.

After an eerie Ambient introduction, ‘In the Heart of the World‘ displays mesmeric mid-tempo passages, completed by obscure chants and Black Metal screams. DØDSENGEL vividly add layer after layer to the song, slowly building a thick as well as arcane atmosphere.

Kark comments on the compositional process:

“This song started out being based on more or less a single melody I had written quite some time ago as a somewhat abstract idea, but still with a graspable direction and feel to it. The structural skeleton of the track gradually got clad in flesh with time, where bits and pieces fell into place with swanlike elegance. The song’s climax is one of our heaviest ever, in every aspect.“

M.A. narrates about the lyrical dimension:

“In my tradition, we have an idea of the Angel or Daimon, a representative of your True Will and inmost being. I felt like I had lost myself in life, and endured months and months of dry spells and tedious gray dull despair. Then, absurdly, I had a moment where I relived an experience of unity with that luminous being. Seemingly for no reason at all, everything was right, and I was bursting with energy, creativity, and presence. I tried to express this feeling of experiencing the true will, then getting lost in your own life and gradually losing more and more of that connection, and then, suddenly and absurdly, being there again. I am not sure I succeeded, but I have grown to truly love this song and the dance between Lover and Beloved that it tries to express.“

“Bab Al On” will be released on CD, vinyl and digitally including merchandising via Debemur Morti Productions on December 16th. Pre-orders for all items via the label’s EU, US and Bandcamp shops are possible. The exclusive DMP edition is solely available via the label’s EU and Bandcamp stores.

Translating to “angel of death,” Norway’s DØDSENGEL has possessed a style of their own since day one. Refusing to conform to genre trends or conventions, they follow their own path. Dissonant, atonal chords and churning black metal riffs craft an undercurrent to a one of a kind vocal performance. Ghastly shrieks, bestial growls, desperate wails, and majestic opera chants sing the song of a devilish carnival, twisting and turning beyond definition. What cannot be defined cannot be contained, and the pairing of DØDSENGEL and Debemur Morti Productions assures nothing but a future of even further demented opuses to be brought to bear.

Five years after the first collaborative fruit, “Interequinox” (2017), was given birth, DØDSENGEL channel their energies into eleven Thelemic hymns. “Bab Al On” will be released on December 16th, 2022.