Casket Dream Veneration is the fourth full length from one-man Portuguese black metal act Onirik, and if the quality here is any indication of the past, one would hope that sole member Gonius Rex does a better job with his Bandcamp page. Scattered streamable songs and an inability to buy/download anything just ain’t gonna cut it, Rex.
Anyhoo, to the album at hand, which is a really good one. Seemingly emerging out of nowhere as a beautiful, weird, and beautifully weird beacon in the middle of so many other single-minded black metal albums, Casket Dream Veneration is anything but. It provides a listening experience that goes far beyond just its list of influences to craft a unique, gripping vibe that never gets in the way of the songs. Or is it the songs that never get in the way of the vibe…
As for those influences, they give Onirik is pretty unimpeachable placement at the crossroads of pure musical pedigree and blackened cred. Beginning with the drifty, straight up weirdness of it all, it’s very easy to hear the whole Ved Buens Ende family of bands, but Casket Dream Veneration never feels quite so far out or intentionally avant-garde. Also massive is the Blut Aus Nord influence, with The Work Which Transforms God in particular coming through in every bend and phrase-ending guitar dive. (The drums also duplicate that feeling; straight descending tom fills, all of them.) However, the album also doesn’t delve completely into that abyss of madness. Rather, it maintains a link to melodic black metal through a constant delivery of oft-eerie leads, calling to mind everything from early Borknagar to even this year’s excellent Obsequiae album.
It all results in an experience that is as hypnotic as it is gripping, and as purely odd as it can sometimes be, well, soothing. It’s really the hypnotic/gripping duality that defines the album. Casket Dream Veneration works well as both a very attentive, nuanced listen and one that is pure feeling, able to drift into the background for mood music. While this contrast is at the center of so much like-minded black metal, very few bands deliver it with such precision and with so many elements as does Onirik. The eerie vocal chants in “Reverent to the Flames” work just as well as a source of relaxation as they do a commanding presence from which you cannot look away. The generally mid-paced rhythms urge you into a sense of ease while the stunning lead work constantly regains your attention.
Point is, even if you have decided beforehand exactly how you’d prefer to digest Casket Dream Veneration, it really isn’t your choice. The album decides for you with its perfectly-executed atmosphere and rich level of detail. From the touch of Transilvanian Hunger in opener “Requiem for a Profane Liberation” and absolute lurch of “I Am Him But He’s Not Me” to the injection of swagger in the title track (that big dive bomb will induce a devil grin), there is no shortage of things to maintain interest, but the album is careful to never overstep its bounds.
In fact, it almost makes a point of not going too far in any direction, always keeping things running down that same musical mean. Over the first few listens, this makes it feel as if things drag on a tad towards the end, but as the contrast mentioned above really sinks in, these relatively samey 45 minutes actually begin to feel short, leaving me wanting even more. That’s a pretty difficult task for something that only occasionally changes rhythms or overall sound, and that’s exactly what Casket Dream Veneration achieves. So Onirik, please, beef up that Bandcamp page, I want more.
