Review by Jason Guest

In Ipsissimus’ own words, the album title The Way of Descent “encapsulates the lyrical matter of the songs in Gnostic, Luciferian and Merkavah traditions as applied to left-hand ethics and praxis.” Cacophonous, brutal and nihilistic, this album deals with the horizon between life and death precariously suspended over the abyss using ritualistic tropes and imagery, the Coptic language (a Christian language still used today in liturgies in Egypt) and unremitting fury to convey the full unadulterated meaning and depth of their ideology. The sounds of torment and torture, the repetition in the riffs, the drumming and the vocal performances combine to create a cacophonous soundscape. Most of the tracks begin as all-out black metal – tremolo riffs, banshee shrieks, tempestuous drumming – with the middle sections and latter halves of the songs steering off into more experimental and progressive territory. Having proved that they are sufficiently evil, it’s at this point where the songs occasion more interest and prompt deeper rewards. The opening to ‘The Alchemist’s Goatthrone’ for instance, the closing two minutes of ‘The Third Secret of Fatima’, and the ritualistic chant (in Coptic) in ‘Hodos Apophaseos’, which is particularly haunting, all stand out as the high points of the album. However, the protracted and complicated songs that make up The Way of Descent make them too long for consumption, putting the incredible musicianship at risk of being overlooked. The production, the musicianship, and the integration of the Coptic language into the black metal idiom, however, make for an album that is only a few steps shy of being something remarkable.

Track Listing:
1. The First Secret of Fatima
2. Monakhourgia / The Prince of Tyre
3. The Second Secret of Fatima
4. The Alchemist’s Goatthrone
5. The Third Secret of Fatima
6. Hodos Apophaseos

7 out of 10