The supremely blackened 2007 album from France's Arkhon Infaustus, Orthodoxyn is their fourth, released in Europe on Osmose but now available here in the States on the esteemed Red Stream label. Opening with the lurching dissonance of "Trigarammaton", Arkhon Infaustus again plunges us into a fetid tangle of brutal, atonal death metal and complex black metal with songs that combine crushing, chunky riffing and slow, doomy passages with complex layers of guitar composed into droning, fucked-up melodies and alien harmonies. Much of the music on Orthodoxyn is slow, huge doomic riffs slithering through fields of evil dissonance with gutteral layered vocals that create a weird disorienting effect, the lyrics surrounded by overt satanic imagery and fascinating lyrics that infuse their goat-worshipping concepts with feverish visions that are drawn from biblical scriptures, scenes of sexual perversion, and quantum physics. I can hear a similiarity to fellow French black metallers Deathspell Omega, especially in the fucked up, avant-garde riffing and bizarre song structures that Arkhon Infaustus employs, but these guys are much, much heavier, their atonal dirges and downtuned riffage often broaching Incantation territory. These parameters of Arkhon Infaustus's sound make this another crucial slab of French black metal, filled with experimental guitar textures and abstract melodic leads matched by pulverizing heaviness, with an undercurrent of disturbing dissonance that constantly underscores their music. Another album of brutal, blackened French death from these masters, a must-get if you were into their last album Perdition Insanabilis (which is another favorite around here), and lust for both the innovative French blackness of Antaeus, Deathspell Omega, S.V.E.S.T., Blut Aus Nord, and the discordant crush of bands like Incantation and even Portal. Includes a thick booklet with lyrics and artwork.