Review: Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio – 'Vision:Libertine – The Hangman's Triad'

ORDO ROSARIUS EQUILIBRIO
'Vision:Libertine – The Hangman's Triad'
OUT OF LINE

Six years on form their last full-length studio album the duo of Ordo Rosarius Equilbrio return with one of their most ambitious albums to date. The band's latest album, 'Vision:Libertine – The Hangman's Triad', was originally planned as an EP, but over the course of three years it steadily evolved into an epic double album that revisits the band's earlier tribal leanings with their more recent darkly sensual tones. The themes of lust, ritual and spiritual sexuality still loom large over the eerie and sombre sonic formula as they do on all ORE releases. But this album take things deeper and darker than ever before.

The songs are as sexy as they are bleak. The haunting neoclassical and ambient electronics blended with neo-folk are given a boost by percussive and acoustic support from Empusae’s Sal-Ocin. Songs such as 'Eschatos And Hedone - The Killing of Ataraxia', 'Flesh 4 Flesh & Kingdom Come', 'The Fire the Fool and the Harlot (The Hangmans Triad)', and 'Holy Blood Holy Union' dominate the first disc with their strong rhythms and sinister classical strains. While the likes of 'The Misanthropic Polygamist (How Gods Dream)', 'Venus In Nothing But Nylons And Pearls', 'The Tribalism Of Tribadism (Evil Men Have No Songs)', and 'Four Pretty Little Horses And the Four Last Things On Earth' kick disc two into submission in similar fashion.

The album builds on the near cinematic scope of the band's previous release 'Songs 4 Hate & Devotion' and pushes the band's conceptual framework further than ever before. Their Sade-esque erotica and Crowlian symbolism collide with some of the most apocalyptic compositions in their back catalogue so far. The production keeps pace nicely and keeps a wonderfully cavernous atmosphere for the percussion while the guitars and vocals sound close and intimate.

'Vision:Libertine – The Hangman's Triad' is the result of a band pushing themselves harder than ever before, and the result is a joyous listening experience. Heavy on atmosphere and explicit of content this album feels like the culmination of a career of effort distilled into an immersive two-disc album.  

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