Sanctus Daemoneon are a two-piece band (vocalist / lyricist Corso and music writer / multi-instrumentalist Cyrus Paice) from Denmark, formed in 2006 and creators of two full lengths and one EP / MCD, respectively Grey Metropolis (Regimental Records, 2008), the unaVOIDable (Negative Existence, 2010), and Nothingless Nothingness (Dunkelkunst, a sub-division of Kunsthauch, 2009). The latter, that mini-release, was recorded during several occasions in 2008, and eventually mixed by Cates (he also co-operates as live musician), and mastered by Jeppe Hasseriis. It comes in pro-CD edition, limited to 1,000 copies, and it has a total running time of twenty seven minutes.
Nothingless Nothingness opens with the track Coma Tossing Elegance, and the intro on it… Well, nothing can go wrong by that sample, because it’s taken from one of the best movies ever (at least to my humble opinion, Léon by Luc Besson. Yes, I do exaggerate right here, at least with telling that nothing can go wrong. What I mean about the movie, well, I do not lie - it simply is KULT! But that’s of no importance right here (maybe I should become a motion picture reviewer?...). Anyway, Coma Tossing Elegance brings a very eccentric, integer, little sober and experimental form of Black Metal, though I would rather call it something like oppressive, desolate and suicidal Black-injected Metal / Rock. Don’t expect fierce guitar riffs and heavy bass lines, pounding drums and sulphured screams; it’s a semi-acoustic mélange of dark-ambient atmospheres dwelling in a tasty blackened sauce. And that goes for all songs on the EP. Carnival Of Pretend has more of a funereal Doom epic, with melody prevailing on fierceness, and you might think it’s funny, but it reminds me a lot to the earliest works of Evol (!), however re-interpreted by trading the occult and blaspheme initiations by rather emotive and integer ones. Also the Great Escape, Zero and Destination Desolation are a mixture of Gothic / Gothic Rock and Atmospheric / Funereal / Suicidal Black Metal, with some soft, distant and subtly-cosmic electronic elements, hints of Limbonic Art (not the harsh violence, but rather the Dimension F3H-approach), and elements from Neo-Classical / Dark Ambient at the one hand, and gentle Post-Rock / Shoegaze at the other (though this might be nothing more than a glimpse…).
[note: why a review on an ‘old’ release? Actually, Kunsthauch, Dunkelkunst and 99 Screams Series, all acting under the same banner, did send us, and therefore I am truly thankful, quite some releases, both new and old; since all of them, or at least the majority, are worth being known / listened, I have no reason to not promote this excellent stuff!]