That promise seems to have been delivered, as Daemonosophia arrives with nary a 9-minute track to be found. The two advance singles land as relatively straightforward black metal tunes but still manage to maintain The Magus’ penchant for horrific theatricality. I was tempted to embed first proper track “Psuedoprophetae,” an absolutely blistering assault that appears on the heels of a version of the Lord’s Prayer that’s a bit different than the one I was taught in Sunday school, but I’ve opted for “Magia Obscura” instead. The latter demonstrates more of the diversity found across Daemonosophia, its snarl augmented by a clean intro and majestic heavy metal guitar leads.
But don’t let those two tracks trick you into thinking that Daemonosophia is just another melodic black metal album. The variety on offer within these compositions and their 47 minutes is astounding. The title track made me realize what Iced Earth in their prime might have sounded like if they were a black metal band, “Amelia” is a hauntingly beautiful tribute to the dramatic devilry of King Diamond, and “The Era of Lucifer Rising” sees The Magus reworking a tremolo-laden black metal church-burner from Thou Art Lord’s 1994 debut record into a melodic monstrosity of esoteric might. But perhaps the greatest surprise is album closer, “La Llorona Negra,” an outstanding cover of a classic Latin American folk song. Organ, harpsichord, and piano introduce the song and its first, female, vocalist, and for a moment, it doesn’t sound all that different than the version you heard on the Coco soundtrack. That is, until your hear La Llorona herself screaming in anguish behind the beautiful singing, and before the song evolves into a metal juggernaut with The Magus on the mic near the halfway point.
There is very little for me to complain about on Daemonosophia. Its runtime feels vastly shorter than it is, and its compositional flow has made it nearly impossible not repeat over and over again. The Magus demonstrates an incredible gift for songwriting, Maelstrom’s drumming is a tympanic tempest that lives up to his name, and while El might play for Soulskinner, he should probably be called ‘Facemelter,’ as his guitar playing has made it look like I touched the Ark of the Covenant. My one critique would be that the production feels a bit heavy on the low-end tones, and this was initially a barrier to me feeling Daemonosophia’s full impact. The album is saturated with hidden touches that demand to be heard, and I had to minorly tweak my EQ settings to fully excavate them. At the end of the day, this is a small price to pay for an album that has delivered me multiple Song o’ the Year contenders in “The Era of Lucifer Rising,” “Amelia,” and “La Llorona Negra.”
In interviews, I’ve seen The Magus boldly claim to make “extraordinary music for extraordinary people.” I’d say he’s half right. I’m just an ordinary dude, but Daemonosophia’s extraordinary music has spoken to me nonetheless. The last year or so has been a bit rough for me physically, and I’m having to face the fact that I can no longer live life the way my pre-40s self could. So when “The Era of Lucifer Rising” closes with (what I believe to be) ‘Above hatred and madness/Beyond weakness and pain/I raise the veil and break the chains/My reign has just begun’, followed by a pair of powerful screams, I can’t help but feel empowered to handle whatever challenges this new era brings me.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: The Circle Music
Websites: necromantiathemagus.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/themagus666 | www.themagus666.com
Releases Worldwide: February 20th, 2026
