That second record was my introduction to Gnosis and made for a favorable review where I’d obviously been unsure of their direction just yet, nonetheless that fine line between classic black/doom movement and the shuddering eeriness of Varathron was still unforgettable. whom would take up vocals after that album. There were additional shades of Necros Christos and the auld strengthened force of black/death metal that would start to cool off as the line-up would shift towards their second full-length (‘ The Offering of Seven‘, 2018) which added perhaps the most key actor on ‘Omens From the Dead Realm’, R.P. Forming a band and recording an impressive debut full-length (‘ The Third Eye Gate‘, 2015) in the space of less than two years didn’t find the original line-up lacking in ideas or quality control, landing in the right place on Nuclear War Now! and gaining fandom for their sound which I’d likened to Acheron and Mystifier at the time. When they’d formed as a quartet in 2013 things moved incredibly fast and because of this their earlier sound is still recognizable as the same band we experience today but, it was more a product of less focused taste at the time. Today it would be fair to describe Gnosis as a black metal band chiefly concerned with devotional Hellenic black metal meter/rhythm with their own shades of black/death metal applied.

To anyone else but the cult, a stirring idiosyncrasy and ambition that is yet admirable. In practical terms, the niche they’ve honed their craft around can consider this album an immaculate record.

Here the young artists stride heartily within the afterlife, or another life at least, while managing a meaningful continuation of their previous death worship. Their third full-length album, ‘ Omens From the Dead Realm‘, sees death for the sorrowful scenery it is while also balking at the infinite sensation of the underworld and the endless tumult of the Gods themselves. Obscure and unwilling to engage with anything less than the noumenon of their own traditional, devout creation one could argue that Miami, Florida-based black/death metal trio Gnosis see and seek only what is real with truly admirable resolve. Tireless scavengers and protectors of the ancient ways, we owe them thanks even as they devour into abysm. Yet these are not justice’s tormentors or daimon by the god-hand, they are nameless soul eaters and geist from south-lying swamps who’d prey upon those opportunistic abominant stuck within the veil and hungering for the rediscovery of olde magick, necromancy that’d reinstate our dissolved flesh. On Hermes’ blazing roads these long errant, long-fingered psykhopompos drag us in quartered pieces, aether-bleeding arms and snapping mouths snatching at the dirt and grass to prevent the dragging of our diseased souls below. Now you well know all things in your heart, since you sit foremost among the deathless gods, Now, you are free to learn whatever you please but since, as it seems, your heart is so strongly set on playing the lyre, chant, and play upon it, and give yourself to merriment, taking this as a gift from me, and do you, my friend, bestow glory on me.” Homer, Hymn to Hermes

For I seek to be friendly with you both in thought and word. “ You question me carefully, O Far-worker yet I am not jealous that you should enter upon my art: this day you shall know it.

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