Track Listing

1. Felonies Of The Christian Art
2. Agony Of Fallen Grace
3. Black Seeds On Virgin Soil
4. In Defiance Of Existence
5. Sacrifice Of Vengeance
6. The Soul Receiver
7. In Quest Of Enigmatic Dreams
8. The Underworld Domains
9. Life Deprived

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114559 in Music
• Released on: 2003-03-25
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
The fifth album from this revered Norwegian black metal act which features the talents of Galder and Nicholas Barker of Dimmu Borgir. 9 tracks. Century Media. 2003.

Customer Reviews

A masterpiece from Galder
An incredible work! If you are a Dimmu Borgir fan, this disc is an absolute must-have!!! Galder has outdone himself writing these pieces...

It doesn't get much better than this
In 2003, three years after Old Man's Child's last album and two years after Dimmu Borgir's latest, Galder returned with two new discs (the sixth C.D. from his side project, OMC's "In Defiance Of Existence," and Dimmu Borgir's "Death Cult Armageddon"). As on other Old Man's Child releases, Galder handled nearly every instrument on this album: second guitar, vocals, bass guitar, and synthesizers. But he is, unexpectedly, not the only one on here who really gets to show off his talents: Dimmu Borgir/Cradle Of Filth/Benediction alumni Nicholas Barker (who had been hired to pound the skins on this album), goes completely nuts, beating the stuffing out of his trapkit, and driving most of these rhythms with remarkable, fast, thumping blast beats.

Like all great melodic black metal, "In Defiance Of Existence" has several pretty, tranquil parts, but it's first and foremost brutal. The heavy parts feature Galder spewing his venomous, kind of snarly vocals over cold, opaque soundscapes of fiery guitars and ultra fast double kick drumming.

But this album also has a lot of great, very refined texture and variety because several of these songs subtly slip in a touch of moody keyboards and/or acoustic guitars. And OMC aren't like some dark metal bands who either make a song completely melodic or completely heavy (with no middle ground), because many of these tracks, like "Agony Of Fallen Grace" (which has a walloping, machine gun rhythm but also includes some spacey synths), are brutal and ambient at the same time.

The record's best song might be "Black Seeds On Virgin Soil." After a melodic intro, a surging, whiplash onslaught made up of a hurricane of guitar riffs and extremely busy double bass work bursts onto the scene. Similarly, "The Soul Receiver" begins with the sounds of a symphony, but then catapults into a heavily churning, pummeling rhythm. Track seven, "In Quest Of Enigmatic Dreams," is an interlude consisting of a very pretty string arrangement, but the album goes out with a bang: "The Underworld Domains" and "Life Deprived" are both scorchers, bursting with thrashy, scalding riffs and ultra-fast, skull-cracking blast beats.

It's a shame that Dimmu's "Death Cult Armageddon" and "In Defiance Of Existence" came out the same year because when someone releases an album from both of his projects, the side project will probably always be overshadowed by the main one. Thus this disc is sometimes overlooked due to DB's bigger, wider selling, and all around better release. But, regardless, OMC is as good as any melodic/symphonic black metal group on the market today, and "IDOE" is easily one of the genre's finest releases of the past several years.

Absolute Brilliance
In Defiance of Existence is truly a landmark black metal album. As a black metal fan of over ten years now, it is an album that absolutely stands out as one of the best I have ever heard. Galder is an absolute genius and the addition of Nicholas Barker on drums completes the potential of an concept that is completely realized if not surpassed. Every song is amazing. It does not get any better. I have always marveled at how Galder nearly alone can outdo the whole of Dimmu Borgir but that is just what he does. This album is the best that OMC has ever done and is completely amazing. An absolute triumph and an essential part of any black metal fan's collection.