If you did follow the band’s career, you’ve probably read here and there that while most fans enjoyed their sound their too strikingly close similitude with bands like Conqueror or Revenge was, to a certain extent, penalizing them in order to access to cult status. Much like other “hybrid” bands like Witchrist or Teitanblood, sharing much of the same sound with the former (and why not, they both come from New Zealand), Diocletian escape easy labeling and force us into accepting their music as it is. If you also consider that they have also many cataclysmic breakdowns that no Doom Metal band would be ashamed of, you can start to imagine how difficult it is to categorize this band into one genre or another. Over the years, Diocletian have incorporated more and more Death Metal elements into their music paying tribute to Death Metal gods Incantation.

Some hear pure Black Metal, others Death Metal and I guess that in the end most are right. Black Metal? Death Metal? Most people tend to argue over one or the other to define Diocletian’s genre.

Diocletian war of all against all