Disappointment and Creative Poverty

A band that has lasted over twenty years and a name change, Diabolicum, once Imperial, after a 14-year wait, have released their third album. Many a fan are quite excited to receive and listen to Ia Pazuzu, the first new product since The Dark Blood Rising. With such a long wait for a release, the band’s sound should have progressed and updated, bringing their best foot forward on this new album.

If it is going to take 14 years to release an album, the product should be better than top shelf. It should be something worthy of being espoused. However, this subpar pile of swill is not. A poorly composed lot of more thrash metal than anything else, not much on this album sticks in your memory for good reasons. The most egregious and a perfect example of this is “Abyss of the Shadows,” which is a joke of a track. It is the only full “industrial” incorporated song on the whole mess, and it isn’t even worth noting aside from how lack luster and dull it is. The utter abuse of listeners really comes to a head with the excessive use of sound clips, not just on this track, but all of them. They are used as if the filler will make the blow of spending money on the album lesser.

The two most noteworthy tracks on the album are “Salvation Through Vengence” and “Angelmaker.” “Salvation Through Vengence” has brilliant solos, rapid fire drumming and has to be the best composed song on the album. The second song, “Angelmaker,” doesn’t pick up until about 1:50 into the song; it’s worth the wade through the repetitive guitar line. Heavy, murky and kind of sexy, this song really should have been its own single. However, it then is ruined by dragging off at 4:20 into ambient noise involving a baby crying for the rest of the track, devolving into the familiar nonsense of the rest of the album.

The overall injustice of this album is terrible. While there are two tracks on the album worth listening to, it has to be said they should have been placed on their own solitary single, rather than a padded, noise-ridden album such as this. Not really incorporating the industrial part of the Industrial black metal genre was another error on the band’s part, and could not be overlooked. It is sad, creatively impoverished and rather upsetting this was what the band thought they should fork over to their fans.