Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio – Nihilist Notes [And The Perpetual Quest 4 Meaning In Nothing] (Album – Out Of Line)
![Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio – "Nihilist Notes [And The Perpetual Quest 4 Meaning In Nothing]" album cover](http://sideline.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Ordo-Rosarius-Equilibrio.jpg)
Genre/Influences: Neo-Folk, Chanson, Martial, Cinematic, Experimental.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl, Cassette.
Background/Info: Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio has been active for more than twenty years now. They don’t release a new album a year, but take their time to achieve their productions. This work comes three years after, according to me, the best work ever of the band “Let’s Play [Two Girls & A Goat]”. The opus is available in different formats.
Out Of Line issued the album as a CD digipak, on cassette and as a wooden box set limited to 444 copies that adds the album on 10″ vinyl and five collector’s coins, as reported in Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio offer new ‘Nihilist Notes’ album as CD and boxset. The album followed the four-track mini-album “La Fleur du Mal”, released in March 2022.
Content: The work takes off with an impressive intro while there also is a kind of outro song. In between both you’ll discover 11 songs driven by bombast and orchestral arrangements. ORE has seriously boosted the production by omnipresent, heavy, percussion parts. The global atmosphere hanging over the songs is dark and sad. Choruses often have an elevating effect which is more reminding me of the past few albums. On top of it all you’ll hear the charismatic voice of Tomas Pettersson while Rose-Marie Larsen is still there to inject a feminine and sensual touch as backing vocalist.
+ + + : One thing is for sure ORE don’t repeat themselves and that’s rather a good thing as it might have been difficult to improve the masterpiece “Let’s Play [Two Girls & A Goat]”. This work sounds as a mix of early stuff together with the dark, sensible and melodic late productions. The percussion never has been that orchestral and that’s probably also due to Sal-Ocin (Empusae) who became a member of the band. This work is filled with darkness and drama. It’s a perverted mix of sensible passages, erotism, nihilistic atmospheres and total despair. The work reveals uplifting passages but here again the main feeling remains dark and depressed.
– – – : It was a true challenge striking back after their previous album. ORE did successfully although this work never reaches a same, qualitative, level. The songs are even a bit predictable after a while.
Conclusion: Ordo Rosarius Equilibro remains to me one of the most artistic projects from the dark scene. A band with its own sound and unique approach we can only salute and respect.
Best songs: “In The Skies That Burn There’s No Refuge 4 Man”, “Of All The Pearls We Cast To Swine”, “The Sins That I Did, And All The Sin I’ll Ever Do”, “
I Remember, The Perpetual Search For The Meaning In Nothing”, “I Set Fire To Cathedrals, With The Flame Inside My Heart”.
Rate: 8½.
Artist: www.facebook.com/ordorosariusequilibrio
Label: www.outofline.de / www.facebook.com/outoflinelabel
About Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio
Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio is a neofolk and martial industrial project from Stockholm, Sweden. Tomas Pettersson started it in 1993 as Ordo Equilibrio, after ending his previous band Archon Satani, together with Chelsea Krook. Cold Meat Industry released “Reaping the Fallen, The First Harvest” in 1995, “The Triumph of Light…. and Thy Thirteen Shadows of Love” in 1997, the “I4I” 7″ in 1997 and “Conquest, Love & Self Perseverance” in 1998.
Rose-Marie Larsen replaced Krook on backing vocals in 2001 and the name changed to Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio. Cold Meat Industry issued “Make Love, And War; The Wedlock of Roses” and “Make Love, And War; The Wedlock of Equilibrium” in 2001, “Cocktails, Carnage, Crucifixion And Pornography” in 2003, the split with Spiritual Front “Satyriasis – Somewhere Between Equilibrium And Nihilism” in 2005, “Apocalips” in 2006 and “O N A N I [Practice Makes Perfect]” in 2009. Raubbau released the 10″ “Four” in 2007. Fredrik Leijström and Ronnie Bäck joined on bass and guitar in 2008.
The band signed to Out Of Line in 2010, following the demise of Cold Meat Industry. The label released “Do Angels Never Cry, And Heaven Never Fall?” and “Songs 4 Hate & Devotion” in 2010, “4Play” in 2013, “Vision: Libertine – The Hangman’s Triad” in 2016 and “Let’s Play (two girls and a goat)” in 2019. Nicolas Van Meirhaeghe, who records as Empusae, is listed among the current members alongside Pettersson, Larsen and Leijström. Pettersson discussed the previous album at length in the ‘Click Interview’ with Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio.
“Nihilist Notes (And The Perpetual Quest 4 Meaning In Nothing)” is the fourth Out Of Line full-length by the band and its first new album since 2019.
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