Artist: Diocletian
Country: New Zealand
Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions
Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD
Year: 2024
Diocletian’s ‘Gesundrian’ from 2014, released by the French Osmose Productions label, is commonly seen as one of the absolute cornerstones of the Bestial Black/Death Metal genre. Forged into a near-perfect sonic storm of aggression and violence, it resembles everything aspect of the genre in its full blasphemous glory. It was therefore to the disappointment of many that the band called it quits a year later. However, that absence did not last very long and guitarist Brendan “Atrociter” Southwell brought the band back to life a year later. Although with a completely renewed line-up in which not one other former band member returned. To many, however, the first album the band came up with, 2019’s ‘Amongst The Flames Of A Bvrning God’ (Profound Lore Records) was not the comeback that had been hoped for…
On a personal note, I never quite understood the vented complaints that much. It might not have lived up to the expectations left by ‘Gesundrian’ from five years before, but it was still very much a Diocletian album in every sense of the word. The most common grievance was that the album offered more of the same, something which in itself is a somewhat surprising observation for a band in this particular genre not characterised by its volatility and creative excesses.
Putting my own opinions aside, it is of course an objective observation that following up a modern genre classic is no mean feat either. Fortunately, the band has not stopped there and followed up, again five years later, with a new album: ‘Inexorable Nexus’. Incidentally, again via a different label, this time Nuclear War Now! Productions the landlord on duty.
There are bound to be plenty of naysayers again, but without a doubt this is another record worthy of the Diocletian imprint. All trademark ingredients are again fully represented and in just under 35 minutes you undergo another ultimate musical whipping. The grinding riffs, the relentlessly pounding drums, dive-bomb solos and the ferociously barking vocals of Rigel Walshe (Dawn Of Azazel) come together in a cut-throating savage chaos that is not inferior to the band’s previous work in terms of authenticity. Compared to ‘Gesundrian’, ‘Inexorable Nexus’ does not have that heavier, more Death Metal-oriented sound either. Instead, the band equips itself with a more vicious and sharper sound that was already evident on its predecessor, thus definitely giving this second incarnation of Diocletian a clearer Black Metal profile.
It is impossible to satisfy all tender souls and it will probably always be difficult to stand up to the stonkingly good ‘Gesundrian’, but Diocletian, with ‘Inexorable Nexus’, has undoubtedly proved that they still have more than enough to compete with their genre peers.
