‘The world you live in is hollow.’
Opus Diaboli is a visually foreboding, Black Metal banquet, about a band who always choose the option to converse with demons rather than exorcise them. It documents Watain’s growing power over the last 13 years. Vocalist Erik Danielsson is the mouth of the documentary. He’s a fascinating and deeply profound bloke. He knows what he wants and he fucking takes it. He knows where he wants to be and he fucking gets there.
‘We think of our life work, and what we have become.’
The music Watain have conjured up since their first release, has always been Black Metal that moves something deep inside you. Seeing them live is a dark, ceremonial experience, which leaves you with a cavernous feeling of sinister wonder for days. The documentary is interspersed with ‘a ceremonial concert performance’ and, like always, Danielsson is like some macabre alchemist. Slicing up the documentary and slipping in some live performance was, I think, a good move. It gives you time to mull over and digest what Danielsson has to say. Everything that comes out of his mouth in this documentary carries a great weight.
‘The darkness around us beckons us to explore its many layers.’
Danielsson’s voice is deeply hypnotic, though fortunately not to the point that your head is dropping. He spends quite some time going into depth about the symbolism behind their logos, which serves to highlight the lengths to which the band go to.
He goes onto talk about the transcendental power of music; that it can be used as something profound. Something Danielsson talked about with some pressure, was not limiting expression because of other people, again something I have a high regard for. Opus Diaboli is a solid documentary, put together with great attention to detail, even the credits were considered and touched with the distinctive Watain grandeur.
I also appreciated the two CD’s featuring a concert at Münchenbryggeriet in Stockholm. The well thought through booklet was another bonus. It features photos of the band from 1998 to the present day, along with images of their tour posters and lists of tour dates.
‘Our blood is restless and always has been.’
Links::
Watain Website: http://www.templeofwatain.com/
Celebrating the strange and the shadowy, the damned and unseen 