AOSOTH - IV: Arrow in Heart (2013)

Genre: Orthodox Black Metal

Label: Agonia Records

Rating: 9.5/10

Aosoth has never released a bad album, let's get that out in the air right now. This album, however, is to-day their masterpiece, crowning jewel, la pièce de résistance, magnum opus, whatever you want to call it, it is absolutely a landmark in Orthodox Black Metal (I think it's worth noting that this was the album-of-the-year in 2013 for me). I got it on clear vinyl with a blue haze, and it came with an insert glued into the sleeve that had, whilst not the lyrics, but visions of frontman/vocallist extraordinaire MkM in Braille (I might add that this is one of my most prized possessions). It is because of the labour involved with translating Braille into the Latin alphabet that I took half a point off of the rating (I know, I'm a bitch. And no, I won't help you in transcribing them, do it yourself). This album is that good. (By the way, that's a minor point, let it be known.)

The cover art, done by the excellent Benjamin Vierling, is beautiful as can be. The album has crisp, modern production. The guitar tone, derived from a Randall V2 amplifier and Ibanez guitars, is fawn-worthy. The drums, though programmed, sound ultra-real and alive. The bass parts are always interesting, and tasteful to the extreme. The vocals are, in my arrogant opinion, some of MkM's defining and shining moments.  Bst, InrVI, and MkM have really outdone themselves this time, and I am anxious to see what comes after such a powerful release!

Drop A tuning and very forward, clean bass give this album some massive low-end. Every single song on this album has the potential to get stuck in your head. How many albums can you say that about that were released in recent memory? The first track, "An Arrow in Heart," is a very dissonant song, but not in an OH LOOK, WE'RE ATONIC sort of way. It serves the greater darkness of the song. In fact, whirling chords that mire in dissonance set the tone for much of the album, as it continues on "One With the Prince With a Thousand Enemies." The two guitar tracks are set against each other, yet work towards the same goal. On "Temple of Knowledge," the opening features something that is also an apparently common occurence on the guitars - atonal bends. Then the lead slows down and sort of contemplates, while the rhythm guitar track maintains the light in the gloom beneath that. My personal favourite track off of this album is the fourth, "Under the Nails and Fingertips."  It is perhaps the least dissonant and most catchy song on the album. There's a section in this song where all is relatively quiet, and then the guitars come in, building up to a riff at 7:10 consisting of three power chords, and everything stops - that is my favourite part. 

Track five, "Broken Dialogue," is what leads me to believe that this album was recorded for vinyl, as it is broken into two parts on the DLP, with part one on side B, and part two on side C, yet on the back of the cover it lists "Broken Dialogue" as one track, albeit with the letters torn apart. On CD, these would be tracks five and six. They both start off with samples that have to do with Christian indoctrination. In fact, I remember hearing, as a child in Catholic Mass and in C.C.D. (Catholic Catechetical Doctrine - the Catholic equivalent of Sunday School for you former protestant readers) the words "think of His Most Beautiful Body." It really strikes something deep within me. The whole movie sample, from 1971's The Devils, all sounds too familiar to me.

The closing track, "Ritual Marks of Penitence," is an enormous paean to Aosoth herself (or so it would seem based off the music video released to the song). It is long, at 14:14, for most Black Metal, and it ends with a bang (certainly not a whimper). It is an excellent song to set a video to.

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT hesitate to buy this album. If you would like the vinyl (apparently Agonia still has some in stock as of this writing) or a CD, you can purchase that from Agonia's webshop, or if you're content with just the electronic files (MP3, FLAC, etc.), you can purchase it from Agonia's Bandcamp for a mere $8 US. If you do not have a record player, this is a case of you now needing to purchase one, because the artwork is so much more satisfying on the gatefold DLP than on a little CD booklet or, even worse, the edited version that comes with the MP3s. Anyway, in closing, support an awesome band, and a giant AMSG to Aosoth.

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