CoC : Ondskapt - Draco Sit Mihi Dux : Review

Ondskapt - _Draco Sit Mihi Dux_
(Oaken Shield, 2004)
by: David Rocher (8 out of 10)

Sadly not the long-awaited unleashing of Ondskapt's tentative second effort, _Dodens Evangelium_, this is in fact the Oaken Shield re-release of Ondskapt's über-misanthropic first full-length, initially released on the defunct label Selbstmord Services. Comprising six tracks ranging from five to ten minutes in length, _Draco Sit Mihi Dux_ delivers harsh, grim and essentially mid-paced to slow black metal, stripped down to its simplest, darkest form. Somewhat akin to a doom-laden musical union of Shining and _De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas_-era Mayhem, the follow-up to the _Slave Under His Immortal Will_ EP boils with subdued, desperate pain, where many contemporary black metal releases rather blaze with seething rage. Lauded by Selbstmord Services as "the evilest album ever recorded" at the time of its release, _DSMD_ in fact sounds depressive, haunting and insane -- noticeably thanks to schizophrenic, rasping and howling vocals very similar in style to Attila Csihar's. Altogether, _Draco Sit Mihi Dux_ is a solid, consistent release that, albeit comprising a number of less effective segues, will not fail to satisfy black metal addicts left nonplussed by the endless wave of second-rate Norsecore acts inundating their mail-order lists these days.

(article published 8/3/2005)