Much has been made in recent years of the Australian black metal scene, and Ill Omen’s compatriots in the Ordo Ater Anguis occult treehouse-cum-esoteric book club Drowning The Light, Nazxul and others, but this writer’s opinion has always been that it doesn’t matter how grimm, trv, or kvlt a band or entity is if the musical output doesn’t back it up.
The Grande Usurper EP is main (read: only) man IV’s first output since 2016’s claustrophobic AE.Thy.Rift, not counting a split with Chilean Hell-trident Slaughtbbath, and it’s thankfully every bit as suffocating as its predecessor.
“The Ruinous Drear” lumbers at the start, suddenly morphing to ravenous and feral in its latter third, while “Sentenced Suffering” pulverizes, acid-tinged strings dissolving finger-flesh to bone, rhythmic pummeling with abandon, no triggers or sense of precision anywhere across the obliterated soundscape. Just pound, destroy, devolve, repeat.
Ill Omen loses its way (or I lose mine) a bit in “An Eld Living Darkness” in that, while not bad, it’s simply buried in what’s come before and what will after, possibly only suffering for its placement in the tracklist, but “A Thousand Yawning Graves” returns The Grande Usurper to its pedestal, frantic yet still spewing non-liturgical allegiance to its deity of filth and decay.
To you who appreciate only music with discernible structure, music that “makes sense,” Ill Omen may not hold much for your ears. For those who writhe in the murk, glorious in demise, however, The Grande Usurper beckons.
