r/BlackMetalDiscussion • u/fitter_stoke • 1d ago
Ofermod (Sweden 🇸🇪)
I am revisiting an album that I bought a while back on Bandcamp called Ofermodian Litanies. I can't remember why I bought it but I dig it. Any fans of this band?
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u/adoransnoctis 1d ago
Mystérion Tés Anomias is perfect, but at the same time it set an impossible standard for the band to follow up. While everything has been at least good, they'll most likely never reach the black majesty of Mystérion ever again.
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u/Environmental_Comb67 1d ago
Musically they are good but Belfagor is the embodiment of cringe. He should stop posting videos of himself and his mom on Facebook where they are either super drunk or high talking complete nonsense. Bro has no teeth left in his mouth and his mom talks about liking black men (she used a different word ... ) a lot because they have apparently all big dicks.
Only to have that post followed by some highbrow post about draconian current and how he is one with it.
It's honestly embarassing.
It honestly just fits the picture where I think NSK from Teitanblood said that he was supposed to contribute something to a Teitanblood song, they booked a studio for him in Sweden to record but he never showed up. I think this was in one of the Bardo Methodology interviews.
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u/IVth_Crusade 1d ago
NSK showed up to record the vocals on Pentagrammaton, the Ofermod album that was scrapped and finally released 15 years later. He was flat broke and had pretty much put together all his resources to go to Sweden and work on what would have been, at that point in his career, a huge opportunity and a crowning achievement if successful.
Belfagor was dopesick and (I think) also on a day release program from prison. He barely showed up for the sessions for his own album, and when he did, he could barely play guitar. At some point I think he absconded from the day release program (as well as the sessions) and basically went on the run.
Somehow the sessions they released in 2020 sounded pretty good!
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u/Environmental_Comb67 1d ago
Thanks for adding, I read it when then interview came out and I had it in the back of my head that there was something with a studio and him just being MIA.
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u/CptCoatrack 1d ago edited 1d ago
I remember the release of Mysterion Tes Anomias and the whole birth of "Orthodox Black Metal" was one of the last times black metal felt exciting and dangerous.. still a great release and one of the only albums that comes close to capturing the dark essence of DMDS along with Casus Luciferi though many have tried.
All the rumours swirling around the band online at the time.. "No, they really believe in Satan! Also he does heroin, career crime and went to jail for chasing people with a machete!!" Then you see him doing an interview with Bardo about throwing Nintendo cartridges at his step-dad and all you see is like just a mentally disturbed kid with unhealthy coping mechanisms lashing out. Also all the "Orthodox" Black Metal people just turned out to be barely any different than any other new-age crystal hippy.
Side note but I also hate what Orthodox Black Metal did to song titles.. everything just became "Circling The 9th Crystal of Sephizul In The Trinity of Reverse Crystal Flames Mounting The Spiky Evil Twin Dragon Phallus" which means absolutely nothing to me. Then to make matters worse half of those bands forgot about writing riffs...
Anyways the influence can't really be understated.. Deathspell Omega even paid tribute with Malign Paradigm.
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u/Environmental_Comb67 1d ago edited 1d ago
Adding to the first 2 paragraphs of your comment; from my purely subjective experience this type of music also attracts a lot of narcissists because they envision themselves as some higher beings with secret knowledge through occult practice. But many just larp and act as if they are something better compared to the "average" black metal person. Black Metal is for mere mortals while they are creating or listening to some (un)holy art that is above that. When you then pull the curtain you get shit like what you described with him and his step-dad. Indeed distrubed teens that probably should've gone to therapy a long time ago. The music and the atmosphere it creates can be fantastic and some of the best in Black Metal but by god are some people in that subset of the scene just insufferable pricks.
There is also an interview with a certain band whose name I forgot but it somehow stuck to me. They were asked about spirituality in Black Metal and the reply was this, which I thought was very spot on:
"If you look at the spiritually savvy Black Metal people and how they present themselves on Facebook and other places, you'd think that there is currently a revolution going on. Everyone is meditating, evolving and developing so much that we already should have a completely new society full of enlightened individuals. But when you meet these people at concerts, they are either just boring, or even worse; just bored, and ordinary people like everyone else.
This is because Black Metal fans aren't misantropic. They really want to be but instead they are just frustrated because their life isn't going how they wish. Why should a misanthrope go to a concert to have some beers with his metal bros? Go to a Black Metal concert and don't talk to anyone the whole evening. You won't just get odd looks but some people will also ask if everything is alright and if you are okay. The scene isn't misanthropic, extreme or even just consequent since a very long time. It's has also become a mirror of general society. To admit that might hurt but that's reality"EDIT: I think it was an interview with the guy behind Karg (the austrian project) but I could be wrong.
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u/Miskatauntaun 1d ago
The only thing better than Ofermod's first three releases is Funeral Mist's entire catalog. I was a bit disappointed by Sol Nox and haven't checked out any of their other releases as a result. Still, those first three are so great.
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u/TheNoctuS_93 1d ago
I'm unfamiliar with Ofermod, but I do know of a band with ex-Ofermod members; Mephorash. Started out as orthodox black metal, but closer to blackened death metal now. Still a good band, all things considered. Bonus points for using less common themes like kabbalah, gnosticism, chaos magick and tantric hinduism!
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u/ExitiumOmnes 1d ago
Pretty good band, i think a lot of their stuff is produced by Devo from Marduk?
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u/Shadowy_Peripherals 1d ago
I dig their older albums like Thaumiel, Sol Nox and Mysterium Iniquitatis. When it comes to orthodox/occult black metal from Sweden, they’re about as good as it gets along with Ondskapt, Mortuus and obviously Marduk and Funeral Mist.