Hailing from Oslo, Okkultokrati deal in a potent blend of blackened sludge and hardcore (the band list their influences as Black Flag and Black Sabbath). With lyrical themes that take in satanism, darkness and drugs, and an affiliation with Fysisk Format (Arabrot), this unconventional crew may be as heavy as a truckload of concrete, but that doesn’t stop them from taking a path less travelled, with perpetually interesting results. La Ilden Lyse is the band’s fifth full-length offering since their inception and their second on esteemed label Southern Lord. An album that is both grim and raw, the band describe it as “black outlaw metal”, a description with which it is hard to disagree.
Opening with the bizarre Thelemic Threat, the band build a wall of horrifying noise around a clean, jangly riff that sounds more like something form a shoegaze release from the mid-90s than extreme metal. That’s not to say that the track as a whole is not belligerent in the extreme, but rather Okkultokrati have taken a satisfyingly unconventional approach to achieving their ends, the piece proving reminiscent of early Darkthrone in terms of raw atmosphere and malicious intent. Perhaps in a more typical mould, Grimoire Luciferian Dream is surging black ‘n’ roll, scabrous of vocal, primitive of percussion and surprisingly vital for all that it relies on genre tropes. In contrast, the reverb-drenched intro to Loathe Forever gives way to a fever-dream assault on the senses that sounds like The 14-hour Technicolour Dream filtered through Ferniz’s sickest sound system. Similarly, the excellently-titled Freezing Vortex Death Dreamer turns its back on the familiar, pairing a doom-laden tempo with a buzz-saw guitar and then layering the whole thing in so much reverb, you’re inclined to imagine it was recorded in a cave. It’s primitive, it’s hellish… it’s fucking awesome (although you’d probably not want to bump into the musicians in a secluded area).
The band’s filthy, rock ‘n’ roll heart is never far away, however, and Cold and cruel kinda sounds like the fabled early punk gigs of the 70s as heard through the ears of a gig-goer on Mandrax. That sense of punk-fuelled hedonism and psychedelic wonder continues on the fast-paced, strangely creepy Kiss Of Death and Mother Superior, both of which recall the rampant innovation of the punk and post-punk movement. Lunatics-Mondsuchtig has a more traditional black metal sound, although the band hit a strident groove beneath the icy layers, although it pales in comparison to the epic-length album closer The Dying Grass Moon, a seven-minute opus that neatly summarises both the band’s primal fury and their ability to draw from a range of influences to craft something that steps away from the norm. It’s a perfect closer to an album that continually challenges expectations, without deviating too far from the ravishing grimness of their past.
La Ilden Lyse is a strong album that relishes its own convention-breaking. Although hints of black metal traditionalism creep in (not least with Grimoire Luciferian Dream and Lunatics – Mondsuchtig), the album excels in its diversity, with the second half coming across as some long lost bad trip caught between the multi-hued acid-trips of the hippie movement and punk nihilism. It makes for an engrossing, somewhat psychedelic listen, and comes highly recommended. 8.5/10
