As black metal pivots away from its bloody roots in Satanism and all things evil, some bands have remained joined at the hip with our dark lord.  These bands form a community with the undead, those souls that have not left this mortal plain, but remain afixed to our worlds, doomed to roam for eternity in utter torture. DEMONCY carries this flickering torch, the sound of the deepest well of sorrow and fear and eternal death.  It's the blood-covered soil at the bottom of a deep well, maggots crawling through the eye sockets of centuries-dead skulls.  And yet this evil reaches up, penetrates the depths and extends its tendrils throughout our modern world.  We are, in other words, a bunch of sick fucks held in the cum-covered palm of Satan's hands.  This is DEMONCY.  This is utter evil.

I'd prefer to the let the album stand on its own, understanding that the band- the brainchild of North Carolina native Ixithra- has been around for ages, and is one of the forebears of USBM.  "Black Star Gnosis" is their sixth full-length album released since right before the 21st century, but it sounds as if it's flesh and battered bones have been festering in the putrid filth for a millenia. DEMONCY dispenses of any attempt at trying to do anything more than accompanying the evil undead on their endless quest for disgust and shame and evil. Vorthrus's drums are a pummeling, non-stop mess, the percussive equivalent of a body drawn and quartered. The guitars of VJS are thick, muddy tracks of human flesh dragged up the sides of a moss-covered well.  The three combined form an unholy communion of worshippers at the foot of the archfiend.  "Black Star Gnosis" is- at the end of the day- a worship album.  And a powerful one, at that.

Not since CHESTCRUSH released "Apechtheia" back in 2022 has a Satanic black metal album really captured the essence of evil without crossing over into the realm of the ludicrous.  Satanic black metal strides a very thin creative tightrope- too over-produced and you run the risk of losing credibility. Too underproduced and you run the risk of pandering to the DIY tape-trading traditionalists of yesteryear.  In other words, if you are being inspired by Satan, you better not find your inspiration in anything else than his fully endorsed pledge of evil and destruction. DEMONCY have not lost sight of this, their vision clearly an extension of the world's eternal wickedness.

The album works best as a whole.  Ambient pieces at the beginning and "Syzygy of Unholy Trinity" add an authenticity to the Satan worship. The vocals exist in a garbled, fluid drenched underworld, gasps of agony as one awaits their fate at the hands of the archfiend.  Ixithra's voice is a hoarse rasp, like the throat calls of a freshly dug-up corpse.  He manages to be convincingly menacing and evil without slipping into farce.  Guitars, bass and drums sound foundational, the concrete of the killing floor, with Ixithra the unholy priest of slaughter and ceremony.

"Black Star Gnosis" works brilliantly as a piece of avant-garde Satanic black metal, a heralded example of the job done well.  There is no forgiveness allowed over these 45 minutes, no mercy given to the plague of humankind that crawl the surface of this planet like a fucking virus. Ixithra and DEMONCY are inviting you to the sacrifice, and it is as ugly, vile and terrifying as it sounds.