There seems to be an uprising in the current of Black Metal known/named as Religious Black Metal. By this term I mean bands which have a very specific “spiritual” approach to Black Metal. While these type of bands manage to preserve the dark essence of Black Metal, they often move away from minimalism and focus on creating more complex song structures as well as creating a more mystical aura instead of the raw and primitive approach taken by other bands.

Dödens Evangelium follows the vein of Deathspell Omega’s latest albums, creating deep and dark soundscapes around elaborate songwriting. The band has a very decent sense of dynamics and you’ll experiences several ups and downs in tempo and atmosphere with some deep and dark sections at times and some other more aggressive and violent ones. Dödens Evangelium features many elements you would come to expect from a Black Metal album that follows the vein of Mayhem’s Black Metal masterpiece De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, mainly the fast, solid, deep and dark riffing but with a less solid rhythmic section. Also the album features many sections were they slow down and get into some interesting calmer and deeper passages which help to give emphasis to the more aggressive sections. The vocals go well with the music, being not really good, but they do seem passionate and a bit mad at times.

Production-wise the album is clear as water, with a kind of “massive” sound; it feels as if they were playing in an open space; and the overall sound is very good and creates a dark atmosphere without the need of any keyboards or synth.

In general this is a strong album and a very good choice for fans of anything released by Norma Evangelium Diaboli (Deathspell Omega, Watain, Ofermod, Katharsis) and for people tired of the minimalist approach of Black Metal or the Darkthrone clones. The only thing I feel that drags the album is the fact that coming close to the end I start to feel a bit tired and it starts becoming a bit tedious, but all apart from that, Ondskapt have crafted a very solid album.