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Deos - Augustus Omnipotens
Available Dec 5 via Wormholedeath Records - Augustus Omnipotens pushes DEOS further into a zone where historical narrative becomes a tool for pressure. The band frames Octavian’s rise as a sequence of ruthless decisions, stripping away sentiment and leaving only machinery, vengeance, legislation and war.
The music follows that logic. Riffs are built for forward motion, sharp and unyielding. Drums hit with consistency that suggests the grind of an advancing legion. Vocals sit low in the mix, functioning like decrees. The production keeps everything cold, which fits the subject matter to a tee.
Dura Lex Sed Lex’ is the album’s hinge point. The band matches severity with one of the record’s most relentless structures. It’s not spectacle, it’s procedure.
Elsewhere, tracks ‘Triumvirat’ and ‘Ultimum Bellum’ map the collapse of alliances and the escalation toward civil war. The transitions are abrupt in design, mirroring the instability of Rome’s political core.
By the time ‘Pax Romana’ arrives, the so called peace feels conditional, almost brittle. DEOS doesn’t present Augustus as a glorious endpoint but as the inevitable result of accumulated force. That perspective gives the album its hefty weight.
8.5/10
Words by Fuego Casa
In collaboration with Headbangers Australia