It took me a while to actually reach into the bag of albums to review to find The Quintessence, but when I did, that old feeling of hope and discovery every time I get a promo package came back, just as it did the first time I got an album to review for Leviatan 3 years ago (man how fast time goes by!). Non Opus Dei is not your regular black metal outfit, their music is full of surprises and interesting twists that keeps you on the edge of your sit as the record progresses; and surprises are something rare this days, the common denominator is after listening to one song you pretty much know how the rest is going to develop, but not with this Polish band, you can speculate but never really pin them down on one specific sound.

We can imply that this is a black metal record if we just listen to the vocal work; that familiar shriek flows on every song, with nothing out of the ordinary, the tone is very familiar as well as the evil and dark intentions it carries, but is the rest of the elements and song structures the essence of this record… is the variety of sounds, tempos, atmospheres, background vocals and even the lyrics (the translation that is because the record is in polish) invoking a more “astral” or even esoteric picture that yes may end up evoking Satanism for those extreme insane Christians out there, certainly interesting lyrics worthy of reading.

NOD takes a basic black metal formula that has been exploited more than the excuse for invoking patriotism on a police state, and transforms it; putting sudden changes in tempo, structuring the songs to have the familiar blast beats but at the same time including weird guitar sounds and riffs that might be consider atypical to black metal and making them all work nicely to create a constant feeling of madness and …yes evil!

Most of the album and the songs are remarkable, well though out, well executed and a world by their own, but is “Oczy Tej Kobiety” and the closing piece “Gdy Faun Poszed³ na Wojnê...” the ones that elevate NOD from an interesting black metal band into artists, those songs are simply amazing, obscure, mystic and with a very intelligent use of “foreign” instruments to regular BM; you SHOULD get this album if regular BM has been loosing its appeal to you lately.