Although the kvltest of the kvlt may gnash their teeth and tear their hair, black metal has truly spread its wings since its early days. Yet no matter the subgenre – symphonic, Viking, folk, progressive, post-black, depressive/suicidal, bestial, orthodox, blackgazer, and on and on – there are certain hallmarks of the genre that remain in place. Speedy riffs, screeches and gravel-throated rasps, and an indelible sense of atmosphere most always stand to differentiate black metal from its metal brethren, although some purists will insist that it’s only the ideological stance – towards darkness, towards mysticism, and frequently, towards Satan – that truly make black metal black.

So then, given all of that, what do we make of a band like Slovenia’s Dekadent?

They wowed me with their 2008 release Deliverance of the Fall – a sweeping, cinematic odyssey that’s still one of my favorite black metal releases of the decade, and with a symphonic mastery I hadn’t really heard since Emperor put out Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk, 11 years before. And since the album was written to accompany a short film (which, sadly, I still haven’t seen – damn region-specific DVDs), it truly felt as if I was listening to a black metal film score. A film score that alternated between moments of ferocious darkness and sweeping, gorgeous triumph.

And it’s Dekadent’s uniquely triumphant sound that really stretches against the boundaries of what we define as black metal. Their newest, Venera: Trial & Tribulation, pushes those boundaries even further. The furious blastbeats, rasped vocals and spattering, buzzsaw riffs are undoubtedly black metal, but the melodies  – soaring, graceful and shockingly positive – are most definitely not.

The recent blackgazer movement (bands like Fen, Sorgeldom, Svarti Loghin, Alcest) has flirted with beauty and grace in a way that Mayhem, Horna or Satanic Warmaster never would, but Dekadent revels in this positive energy from the very first moment. Opener “Thralldom Decree” blasts forth with major tone arpeggios and melodies, solos twist like dancing motes of sunlight, and all while vocalist Artur Felicijan rasps and growls atop this symphony of splendor. The whole thing basically sounds like a moshpit in Heaven, and if Lucifer were falling from grace while listening to his iPod, he might have this blaring into his golden curls.

Other burners like the galloping “Beautiful Fire,” thick and groovy “Providential Love,” and the darker “Craven” follow suit – lightning-fast and scrambling, but shot through with gorgeous strands of color and light where most bands are content to churn through endless shades of black and gray. And almost every song here contains a core of revelation, a sense that the song is reaching and climbing towards epiphany. This was only reserved for specific peaks on Deliverance of the Fall, and only after the song had spent some time in the depths of misery.

The consistently brighter approach doesn’t detract from the dynamics at play here, though – each song still feels like a journey unto itself. Dekadent’s dynamic palette also occasionally extends to Felicijan’s vocals as well – they’re largely a rasped growl throughout, but there’s a stunning clean chorus in “Paramours in Vain” and some chanting choirs in “In Pulchritude Adorned.” Personally, I would have loved to have heard even more of the clean choruses throughout, as they would have really taken the variety and dynamics here to a truly majestic level.

It’s also surprising how much less the band relies on symphonics here than they did on Deliverance of the Fall. The songwriting and melodies on Venera soar enough without them, but I would still love to hear them return on the next album. At least the title track, placed late in the album, delivers that instrumental bliss – and it’s perfectly placed as a climax because it’s so damn heartbreaking.

If the thought of positive, hopeful black metal makes you want to retch, that’s a shame, because you’re missing out on something truly unique here. I’m always on the search for something new and genuine, and over the course of three excellent albums, Dekadent has captivated me every time. They’ve nailed a sound that’s unlike anything in all of extreme metal – savage and sublime, tragic and triumphant. Revolutionary stuff. If you’re at all the adventurous sort, do not miss out on this.

 

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