Today we’re proud to bring you something special, unique, and highly destructive: the first full album listen of Oracular Hexations, the sophomore full-length offering from Portland OR-based experimental bestial death metal legion Diabolic Oath, coming out tomorrow, but which you can listen to in its entirety exclusively today right here, right now:
Diabolic Oath by now need few introductions. Those who follow the US extreme underground closely will already know that the Portland-based bestial death metal horde has established its name in the underground through a unique experimental formula they’ve created which is both dumbfounding and mesmerizing. For those not yet familiar with the three-piece, all of Diabolic Oath’s stringed instruments are all fretless (so both the bass AND, quite unprecedentedly, the guitars are fretless as well). In addition to that the band’s three members all share lead vocal duties equally, and the effect is like an acid trip gone totally wrong. The vocals are passed from member to member frenetically, often juxtaposed, in a frenzied-like manner, an effect that ends up sounding like and encirclement of the listener, with bellowing growls coming from all directions, while the fretless instruments allow the guitarist and bassist to land on notes that wouldn’t normally exist or be used in a conventional instrumentation setting, allowing for the creation of a lysergic, liquefying effect that makes the riffs sound completely alien, in a highly surreal and otherworldly manner.
Don’t be fooled however, this is not some kind of “psych” or avantgarde band. This is a band which is bloodthirsty with destruction and which lays down huge slabs of violent and crushing riffagge precisely in the manner which a fan of this style expects to hear (the influences coming from Teitanblood, Bestial Warlust and Archgoat are evident here), but its their riffs being constantly bent out of shape and being rendered malformed which makes them such a hideous mindfuck, adding to their heaviness an ulterior burden of darkness coming from absolute ugliness and the endless deformity their are forced into.
The way the band constructs its mid-tempos on crushing progressions sustained by this off-kilter playing is especially noteworthy, as it creates a lumbering-like pace that makes each song sound like a behemoth stomping its way trough an infernal hellscape, with its gargantuan hoofs striding forth and carving massive craters into the earth. The band also seem to be fully aware of the disembodied and otherworldly nature of their auditory creation and have awesomely capitalized on its enigmatic musical oddness of theirs by exalting it with all kinds of conceptual ornamentations that greatly enhance the surrealistic vibe of their music; from using cryptic song titles and lyrics evoking parallel dimensions populated by horrendous entities, to referencing abhorrent forms of ritualism that can summon ghastly dark forces and render earthly flesh just a banquet to be vanquished by absurd deities and other otherworldly ominous oddities. One could easily argue that Diabolic Oath is almost more an experience than just a band. A sonic disembodiment temple; a sacred ground which if entered can expose the listener to occult forms of gruesome and violent ritual transcendence into outer realms, with their music serving as the horrendous ceremonial that orchestrates and soundtracks the ordeal, cloaking it in absolute chaos.
Oracular Hexations is officially out tomorrow Friday April 5 2024 on LP, CD, cassette and digitally worldwide via Sentient Ruin (get it HERE or HERE).
