Otargos, No God, No Satan album, Black Metal (news, biography, releases, downloads, line-up, tour dates)

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Latest news: Wed, Dec 14 2011, OTARGOS

Latest release: "No God, No Satan"

Release date: Mon, Aug 30 2010, US Tue, Sep 14 2010

MP3 - OTARGOS - No God, No Satan - Cloning the Divine

French Black metallers OTARGOS present the video clip for "Worship Industrialized", a song from last year's "No God No Satan" album. The clip was directed by Federico Anastasi (Undeci | Decimi), who had already crafted the video for "Cloning the Divine".

Watch "Worship Industrialized" here!

OTARGOS talk about this new video: "Once again, we asked director Federico Anastasi to work with us. We asked him to direct it cause we knew his talent and avantgardist artistic approach could perfectly illustrate the modern dimension of OTARGOS' music. We trusted his skills in original image capture, his talented screenplay ideas and the way he could lead the general visual concept.

"With "Worship Industrialized" we really wanted to get out of all clichés, out of usual atmospheres and shades in order to obtain a result that is faithful to the modern spirit and style of OTARGOS. We wished for something really personal.

"The purpose was to obtain a unique, violent, barbaric but also desolate atmosphere. The set is a post-apocalyptic burnt landscape in which evolves a mutated civilization that worship absurd myths from the past. This past is actually nothing more than our present. To reach this visual goal, we shot almost all the scenes in natural light. The epileptic picture effect is not the fruit of postproduction work, but the result of a simultaneous multicam capture, a genuine recording process designed by the director. It's interesting enough to be noted.

"With this video clip OTARGOS wishes to spread its contemporary image beyond the live performances and impose its "Dark Extreme Metal" style. It also represents the opportunity for us to get loose from the fundamentalist Black Metal scene with which we feel no affinity anymore. We closed a 10-year chapter with the latest release and this video masterpiece is just the beginning of a new era for OTARGOS. The next album is being prepared and it announces a time of change."

The band is now hard at work on the follow-up to "No God No Satan". OTARGOS' whole discography is available on Season of Mist's e-shop.

Biography

OTARGOS have honed their weapons. With "No God - No Satan" the Bordelais burn their mark deeply into the flesh of the French scene. Dissecting, slicing and recombining the musical DNA of Black Metal, OTARGOS take aim at the barbed wired crown of the dark genre with their fourth full-length. Spewing forth hate filled contempt, the French achieve exactly the right balance between industrial coldness, fierce attacks and torturously creeping malevolence. OTARGOS will make you stare into the pitch black abyss of cosmic finitude with a sardonic smile...

Spawned in the Black Metal underground of Bordeaux, the band is founded by singer and guitarist Dagoth and R. F. Lord Mysterium behind the drum kit during the heat blazed summer of 2001. Only a little later a bassist is found in the person of XxX. Always eager to attack the stage the band has several performances even before their first demo "Conquerors, Conqueros? Destroyers" is out in the year 2002. This 4-tracker contains pure Black Metal exclusively. With Kernuun a second guitarist is added to the line-up, which takes the sound possibilities and powerful drive of OTARGOS to new dimensions.

Quickly gaining a reputation as an excellent live act, OTARGOS are invited to open for established bands like BELENOS, ENTHRONED, MALLEUS MALEFICARUM, SETH and YATTERING already in 2003. During the same year the French record their second demo "Codex-666, Infernal Legions Strike", which earns them a first record deal. In 2004 Lord Mysterium decides to leave, while OTARGOS prepare their debut album and Arkhamian takes over his drum stool. "Ten-Eyed Nemesis" appears in the year 2005. This first full-length remains true to essential Black Metal without trendy keyboards or fashionable female vocals. Despite the immediate success of their debut in the underground scene, Kernuun drops out and is replaced by Astaroth as new guitarist.

Due to high demand OTARGOS release the compilation "Spawn From The Abyss" including both by now sold out demos as well as bonus material in the year 2006. Not content to remain on trodden paths the Bordelais explore new musical horizons on their second full-length "Kinetic Zero" (2007). OTARGOS gain even more critical acclaim for these destructive sonic outbursts, which plunge into the total chaos of matter, time and space. Dagoth focuses his lyrical attention on cosmology and a dark vision of humanity facing the consequences of its own creation: religions. OTARGOS are determined to leave the classical Satanistic concept of Black Metal behind. At this time Arkamian bails out of the drum seat, but with Ranko (Artefact) a more than worthy replacement is soon found as the troupe continues to exist essentially as a live band.

With OTARGOS' inspirational base firmly remaining within Black Metal it has never been and is still not the intention of Bordeaux' finest to re-invent the genre not to become the fastest, hardest or most brutal exponents of this style. Yet OTARGOS beg to differ. Their intelligent lyrics are circling around a profound philosophy of cosmology and complete atheism, the inexistence of life or death in a quantum world, where humanity's weakness is exposed in the fractal particularity of the "multiverse".

Come summer 2008, OTARGOS enter the Cox in Hell and Stormlab studios to record their new masterpiece "Fuck God-Disease Process", which takes their native France by storm. Taking their lyrical and musical concept to a new level, OTARGOS are now joining forces with Season of Mist Underground Activists to spread "Fuck God-Disease Process" to the world. To achieve their goals the band decides to change drummer again and recruits Thyr.

With a great response to their first internationally release album the French are quickly preparing for their next strike. Even the demo version of "No God - No Satan" is already so impressive that a new deal with Season of Mist gets inked before the album is finished. As it turns out "No God - No Satan" evokes a quantum leap on every level from songwriting via originality to sound. A dark and impressive clip in the shape of a short film for the song "Cloning the Divine" captures a lot of attention and the album receives much acclaim by critics and fans alike. Riding on a wave of success OTARGOS embark on a tour throughout Europe with label mates WATAIN and DESTRÖYER 666 in autumn 2010. To be continued...

Photo-band2

Line-up

Name	Instrument
XxX	Bass
Dagoth	Guitar & Vocals
Astar8th	Guitar
Thyr	Drums

Releases Season of Mist

No God, No Satan

General information

Release date	:	Mon, Aug 30 2010
Release date US	:	Tue, Sep 14 2010
Genre	:	Black Metal
Reference	:	SUA018
Status	:	available

Reviews

Metal Hammer 5/7 - Germany - Oct 2010

Bei FUCK GOD-DISEASE PROCESS sollte man nicht den Fehler begehen, sich nach einem kurzen Reinhören ein Urteil zu bilden, denn Otargos gehören zu den Bands, die zum einen im Laufe des Albums sowie auch mit jedem weiteren Durchlauf wachsen. Meint man auf den ersten Eindruck, es mit zwar solidem, aber wenig besonderem Black Metal der brutalen Schule zu tun zu haben, zeigt sich mit ein wenig Einarbeitung, wie groß diese Scheibe wirklich ist. Die Franzosen lieben ihre Monotonie: Immer wieder malträtieren sie erbarmungslos des Hörers Nervenkostüm, ritzen einem das jeweilige Motiv vehement in die Großhirnrinde – sei es nun der gefühlt beinahe unendliche, kranke Düster-Part in ‘Pour Toi Une Renaissance’ oder die nervenaufreibend kalt sägenden Gitarren in ‘Nullabsolut’. Doch während auf der einen Seite das gängige Black Metal-Stilmittel Monotonie regiert, zeigen sich die Franzosen andererseits musikalisch ungewöhnlich offen. Das muss man erst mal hinkriegen – zeitgleich monoton und old-schoolig sowie experimentell und variabel zu sein: So ertönt zum Beispiel in ‘N-Universe’ geradezu traditionell metallisches Gitarren-Riffing, während der sechste Track das absolute Highlight stellt: Auf einem dornigen Bett aus bretternden Gitarren und treibender Rhythmik macht sich hysterisch-panisches Frauengezeter breit, das von dem ruhigen männlichen Sprechgesang regelrecht verhöhnt zu werden scheint – herrlich krank!

Diana Glöckner

Metalmessage.de 8/10 - Germany - Sep 2010

Mit wahrlich fanatischen Gotteshassern haben wir es hier zu tun, welche ihre bissige Höllenhorde Otargos im Jahr 2001 in Bordeaux gründeten. Wo sonst also weltberühmter Rebensaft in alle Welt hinausexportiert wird, trieben fortan diese fiesen Teufelsbraten ihr manisches Black Metal-Unwesen – und das neue Studioalbum „Fuck God-Disease Process” strotzt geradezu vor unheiligen blasphemischen Kompetenzen. Pechschwarz anmutende sakrale Dunkelatmosphären sind neben wirklich infernalischen Schwarzmetallstakkati der knallhart hernieder prasselnden Sorte die Spezialität der französischen Satansrotte an sich. Doch die abartig taktfreudige Schänderbande hat eben so viel mehr auf dem Kasten als rasantestes Hochgeschwindigkeitsgeknüppel vom Fass – Otargos, zuweilen gar ein wenig Doom-lastig, bauen beispielsweise immer wieder Samples in ihre Songs ein, welche neben beschwörenden Rezitativpassagen allerlei Beängstigendes Klangkolorit in sich bergen. Auf gesanglichem Sektor arbeiten die Franzmänner sehr viel mit verfremdeten Stimmnuancen, was den ohnehin weltfeindlich-surrealen Faktor der schmissigen Veröffentlichung noch potenzieren kann. Man merkt ganz deutlich, hier hat sich eine Truppe wirklich Gedanken um ihr Material gemacht, was dem kraftvollen Album neben einigem Tiefgang auch einen immens hohen Grad an erfrischendem Variantenreichtum einbringt.

Markus Eck

Close-Up 7/10 - Sweden - Oct 2010

Ju mer bra musik folk hör, desto mer bra musik görs det? Ibland verkar det snarare som om de högt aktade förebildernas värde sjunker i proportion till efteraparnas ökade uppmärksamhet. Men vore det inte för ett visst franskt band hade landsmännen i Otargos troligtvis låtit som Dark Funeral, ett villkor vars utfall får betraktas som en lyckosam omständighet för alla. Detta gäng gör fransk kvlt-black metal som vi lärt oss känna igen det. En underlig, sprucken atmosfär dikterar helheten, till det kommer en mer okarakteristisk rakhet i trumspelet, samt en bottensats som smakar av verklighetens fulhet och elände. Inte alls banbrytande, men väl kvalitativt och uttrycksfullt.

Lars Martinsson

Soundshock.uk 7/10 - UK - Sep 2010

Ortagos hail from France, and this is the band’s third full-length release. ‘Fuck God-Disease Process’ is pure black metal, delivered in the most serious and aggressive manner (no keyboards here people). There is a nice variety amongst the tracks, ranging from all out blasting mayhem to slower, more controlled tracks which have a bit more groove to them. They seem to be more in their element when they pick up the pace, sort of along the lines of Setherial, but the next speed up, avoiding just becoming an indistinct mess. Fans of the film Hellraiser with be impressed with the track ‘Four Facets Of The Tetragramaton Sinestre’ which samples roughly half the film - mostly all of Pinhead’s cooler lines! This makes the track stick out from the others, but the mix has been done to great effect and is sure to stick in the mind. This is more of an album that takes a couple of listens to get into, there are almost some hidden layers that take a while to get used to, such as the odd ambient moment which adds a haunted feeling to certain parts. Overall, this is a decent album that is full of ferocity and grimness, it may not quite tear your soul apart but it might come pretty close!

Claudia Glazzard