Year of release: 2014 / 2019 (CD release)
Label: Karjalan Bunkkeri (tape) / Handful of Hate (CD)
Rating: 7,5 / 10
The Karelian musician Dmitry Lisitsky, who committed suicide in 2015, managed to leave a noticeable mark in the Russian metal underground over his 25 years of life. I think most readers of Bagnik Zine have heard at least the names of projects with his participation - ANTIMELODIX, METI BHUVAH, ORK BASTARDS, SATANAKOZEL (ahem). SOLI DIABOLI GLORIA was founded in 2006 and recorded two albums - in 2007 and 2009, respectively. If the first one was released on CD relatively quickly, the second one was waiting for CD release until October 2019, made by Handful of Hate and Thou Shalt Kill! Records.
While in METI BHUVAH, Dmitry worshiped ILDJARN, played punk in ANTIMELODIX and evil speed thrash in ORK BASTARDS, SOLI DIABOLI GLORIA revealed a different facet of his talent and worldview. The venerable Internet audience, inclined to tailor the surrounding realities to their unicellular thinking, instantly proclaimed SDG the shameless clone of DEATHSPELL OMEGA, and on the cover of “The Last Blessing” these people managed to find some glaring plagiarism from one of the French releases. I looked through my DSO collection but I didn’t find anything similar there. Someone is obviously fucked up... In fact, SOLI DIABOLI GLORIA really worked under the influence of DEATHSPELL OMEGA. This is evidenced by at least a cover song on the first album. There are no covers on the second, but its style is largely based on the avant-garde Black Metal direction, which DSO music adopted after the groundbreaking “Si Monvmentvm Reqvires, Circvmspice”. However, this is not a clone at all. SDG only takes the cream: the characteristic manner of playing the guitar, the high intensity of the compositions, vocals with stretching words - that’s all that really brings SDG to DSO. But the music of the project as a whole is quite simple to understand. Although all instruments sometimes work to the limit, it's hard to call it chaotic. The sound of the songs does not resemble the buzzing of flies swarming over a rotting corpse - rather, this is is a methodical movement of maggots, devouring the flesh. Compositions have a fairly clear division into fragments, which you notice not immediately, but after 3-4 plays. In this regard, “The Last Blessing” receives a prize from me as one of the rare “albums with dissonances and breaks”, songs from which fall into memory - at least some pieces of them. True, this does not mean that the songs here are masterpieces. On the contrary, they are modest in their own way, but strong and firmly stitched. Dmitry was really good both as a composer and as a performer, regardless of the style of music.
What can push the listener away from the album is the lack of scale. Although it is impossible to criticize it for that, since the textual and musical sides in this regard work in unison. The sound picture of “The Last Blessing” is rather dense, almost evoking a feeling of claustrophobia. There is enough room for guitars, bass and percussion in it, but hardly. Perhaps this was the reason that the album has no additional elements, such as keyboard parts or semi-acoustic segments, like of DSO. Against the backdrop of similar bands unfolding multidimensional panoramas in front of the listener, SDG seems to be something local. While the rest depict the overthrow of the essence of the Demiurge at all levels of being, SDG arranges a massacre not even before your eyes, but in your head. “The Last Blessing” does not offer an attraction that includes traveling through the endless Universe and the corridors of Hell. But this is precisely the essence; The texts for the album are personal in nature, and what is happening in them comes from the inside, and not from the outside. Their understanding does not require hours of study of special literature. The nihilistic reflections on the human and divine nature and the repeatedly raised theme of destroying one’s worthless life to the glory of the Devil by hanging makes you emit some far-reaching sensational conclusion - the musician anticipated or even PLANNED his departure from this world, wrote about this even then but no one understood! But I’m not going to speculate on this topic, since I didn’t know Dmitry personally. According to the album, it remains to note the vocals are performed by G.N. from TSK! records / PSALM 666. He sang really well: in a good way disgusting, poisonous, in absolute harmony with the mood and sound of instrumental parts. Vocals recorded 2 years later than instruments can be heard a little “from the inside”, and, in view of all that was said above, this is perfect.
The CD edition of the album, with a circulation of 500 copies, is a six-panel digipack in A5 format. The disc is in the middle, on the sides there are texts in Russian and English versions. It is interesting that the original, as I understand it, is written in Russian, and in rhyme, but the lyrics are sung in English on the album. A little pity - the translation is excellent, but the original version is still more expressive. The digipack design is good: the print is excellent, the fonts and layout of the elements are impeccable. Unfortunately, due to some technical difficulties, I didn't made the video this time. Part of the print run is equipped with an embroidered logo patch. The album is available in Possession catalogue and at TSK! Records.
English (UK) 
Крыўская