Needless to say, De Oppresso Liber is damper than a marsh in New Orleans; it's unable to burn with any creativity, desire, or instrumental passion throughout its burdensome act of desecrating the desecrator. Perhaps this record is the Battlefield Earth to Sothis' formula: big, bombastic, and given the A-grade treatment, but ultimately resulting in a complete failure behind the multiple yet senseless barriers.

I would like to point out the barriers making Sothis - De Oppresso Liber shows the total collapse of Sothis' fragile infrastructure. The ultimate bombshell is dropped through the horrid production and mixing of the album, which, according to my tastes, is offensive on every level. Instead of an assault that remains both violent and atmospheric, Sothis instead opted for the works: percussion so triggered it sounds fake, guitars that are as polished as it gets, keyboards that exert no sense of atmosphere, and vocals operating from today's finest microphone technology.

Is this exclusively a bad idea overall? For some, no; however, therein lies the problem: Sothis, by nature, needs to be raw instead of something pulled out of Roadrunner Records, and, by including such tomfoolery, destroys the essential mainframe of De Oppresso Liber undeniably. The album's title literally means to liberate the oppressed in Latin, but if anything, Sothis enslave themselves into the grind of modern expectations and ideals. Basically, everything is completely overdone in some whirling explosion of theatrical charades so large and annoying even the guys from Dragonforce would find Sothis' methods way out in leftfield.

Of course, another dagger-to-the-heart problem still exists after considering Sothis' flaccid sound: they couldn't write a good song to save Norway. Do you want to form a band like Sothis? I'll give you a quick rubric on the basic requirements:
1. Write pseudo-death/black metal riffs that have been used a zillion times before.
2. Always apply constant blast beats and/or double-bass pedals as much as possible, no questions asked.
3. Exercise the counterfeit idea of symphonic music partaking in the philosophy of extreme metal with redundant keyboards that have been functional in every symphonic black metal band ever.
4. Write about 3-5 guitar solos per song.
5. Always destroy any chance of individualism within the album by making sure every song follows the same pattern and ideology.
6. Have someone rasp into a microphone.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is De Oppresso Liber in a nutshell: generic, bland, predictable, and yielding no musical euphoria. Alas, even objects that should remain untarnished from this obvious downfall are quickly and permanently sucked in a negative vortex where nothing dwells but everlasting junk, just as expected.

If anything, Sothis tightens the chains that bind De Oppresso Liber until nothing escape its dying lungs except the typical, expected garbage you can find anywhere and everywhere, only layered and puffed with more studio magic than Trivium's next abominable release, resulting in a solid dump of junk and a fruity waste of time. Even if one enjoys groups that blatantly bastardize everything powerful in black metal like Dimmu Borgir or Cradle of Filth, one will likely find De Oppresso Liber repulsive, but then again, anyone interested in such horrible music obviously enjoys it anyway, so maybe one will find something of interest after all. However, intelligent music fans better heed my warning: you will want to steer clear.

Tracklisting
Of Night and Silence
De Oppresso Liber
Beneath a Black Boiling Sky
Lunar Descent
Obsidian Throne
Defiance
The Cold Disconnection
Lair of the Benighted
Perpetual