DRACONIAN – Under A Godless Veil – Review english

DRACONIAN – The dark metalers

DRACONIAN (Facebook) have embarked on a new journey through the dark world. Five years after their last longplayer „Sovran“, DRACONIAN want us to join them on 30.10.2020 with „Under A Goodless Veil“ and dive into a gods dilemma.

When gods are bored,

then nothing good usually comes out of it. And if vanity and hubris play a role, chaos is inevitable. The theme of the album is indeed a very tragic one and is based on the Gnostic world view. Sophia, as sub-goddess, wanted to do the same as her almighty perfect father and create something of her own, but that went completely out of control. In the end she unintentionally created darkness and evil. And the result of the divine experiment was the earth with humankind as imperfect creatures, but who carry the divine spark within themselves. There is now a battle between gods and angels on two different sides, a battle between good and evil. Humans have now been exposed to this struggle from the very beginning. If you want to know a little more about this subject, please read the paragraphs at the end of the review. First of all, the music should be in the foreground here.

Into a black hole

DRACONIAN pulled me right with their first song „Sorrow Of Sophia“. When the first tender tones sounded, I was immediately in another world. (You should listen to the album in a dark room lit only by a candle. That intensifies the listening pleasure immensely.) The song is so intoxicatingly beautiful that nobody can escape it. Heike Langhans‘ singing is as beguiling as the sirens from the legend of Odysseus, so that I float along with the music on dark wings. It will also captivate you and you will glide down into the depths of „Under A Godless Veil“ full of enchanting melancholy.

And as beautiful as it began, as fascinating it continues, in every song and every note. Also the expressive growls of Anders Jakobsson have always been a damn powerful element of DRACONIAN. The interplay of the two voices is indeed performed to perfection here, forming an ultimate connection.

A bitter sweetness

runs through the songs. It is like dark chocolate. On the one hand it melts softly and on the other hand it has a strong crunch. Accordingly, the music develops a fine and filigree image of darkness and melancholy. At the same time, the sound always emerges with vehemence and power. Thereby emotions like sadness and despair or disappointment and anger are created.

All in all, the current album differs from its predecessor in that there are more often quiet reserved, even almost vulnerable moments that form a coexistence with the powerful phases. This generates a tremendous depth and emotionality.

Result of DRACONIAN „Under A Godless Veil“

DRACONIAN create an exhilarating and moving monument! This is a brilliant demonstration of what DRACONIAN has stood for for many years. It has an unbelievable atmospheric dimension. For me it is already the GOTHIK-DOOM metal album of the year. I really cannot criticize anything. I love this album more than anything and even after countless listenings it loses nothing of its fascination. It is a dark and beautiful bittersweet revelation!

DRACONIAN and the Gnosticism

DRACONIAN don’t use a simple theme with the Gnostic faith in „Under A Godless Veil“, but it is quite bizarre. So you should deal with it in order to understand the album in its entirety and at the same time show respect to the band, who have put a lot of effort into it, not only musically but also lyrically.

It is a concept of faith that emerged together with Christianity, but has a different approach. According to it, human beings were not created by an almighty benevolent God. Everything was quite different.

Origin of the imperfection

In summary, it can be said that according to the Gnostic (Gnosis=knowledge) world view, a completely pure deity once existed and still exists in a spiritual form. This almighty existence once succeeded in creating the Cosmos, whose leader is Christos. To him belong 12 Aons (Gods). Sophia (=wisdom) is one of them. Sophia was apparently not quite so wise after all, because she was very self-indulgent and she was bored.

The birth of darkness

Sophia was powerful, but not omnipotent and as perfect as the almighty God, the elemental light. Thus, due to vanity and hubris, she tried to create something herself without consulting the great spirit. And so a creature was born, the Demiurge. But Sophia was disgusted by her work and pushed him away. The demiurge, however, has the god power of Sophia within him and is therefore also a god. At that time, however, he knew nothing of his origin and considered himself the only true god. So the demiurge, at first unknowing floundert through the spiritual darkness and at some point thought: Why shouldn’t I use my power and create something? That is what gods do. So he manifested the darkness and the universe was created. He also formed spiritual beings or angels among himself, and finally he also created the human being.

The mystery of God in mankind

The demiurge breathed life into the human without knowing that something of the divine power (soul) would be transferred to him. Humans were also imperfect, but now possessed the divine spark. The demiurge was very dissatisfied with this. But he could not destroy his creation. And ever since then he has tried to keep people „small“ or to keep them in the dark about the fact that they carry divine within them. He created evil spirits, who served him. These are the so called Archons. They take possession of people unnoticed by them and cause permanent unrest so that people are more preoccupied with themselves and their problems and do not reach divine knowledge. The opponent is Sophia, who was mortally unhappy about the consequences of her actions and from then on tried to save what could still be saved. She asked the Almighty for help, who then placed Christos at her side. Since then there has been a struggle between good and evil.

This is what it looks like in a highly abbreviated form with the Gnostic world view. A very complicated bizarre matter that does not spread much optimism. The way the world was and is today, there could even be some sense in it.

HERE is the german version!