Band: Hecate Enthroned
Album: Dark Requiems
You would never know this band was from England.
I associate English bands with oh, I don't know, My Dying Bride style doomy gothic music or the legendary twin-guitar attack of Iron Maiden, not the cold, raw PURE EVIL black metal contained here! Hecate Enthroned do a SUPERB job of meshing furious blast beat drumming, swirling yet melodic guitarwork, screeching vocals, haunting melodies and yes, a touch of mesmerizing gothic imagery. It's a fantastic record, period.
Beginning with an almost soothing, keyboard laden intro, the album wastes no time in pulling you in, only to smash your cerebrum to pieces with the terrorizing wall of sound set forth in "The Pagan Swords of Legend." There is some seriously insane guitarwork and drumming going on here, and if I didn't know any better, a VERY Egyptian-sounding theme running through the background. The album progresses at a nice pace, never really letting up, laying intricate keyboard tracks when necessary, and just going all out with layer upon layer of sound and fury. Most of the songs feature completely undecipherable vocals (as might be expected), Jon dishing out evil screech after evil screech. But Hecate does a great job of mixing things up a bit; for example, "Forever in Ebony Drowning" has a much more obvious Gothic feel to it and then out of nowhere, they break into some serious riffage for the headbanging faithful. It's one of the things that truly impressed me about the record; they aren't as predictable as other black metal bands and make you want to keep listening to see where the song - or part of song - goes next. Really good stuff. 4 tracks into the album and I'm already extremely satisfied, so what does Hecate Enthroned do? Lay down the strongest song thus far - "Upon the Kingdom Throne." I don't really know what it was, but this song has a serious Powerslave-era Maiden thing going on behind the scenes and is much more complex than one might think. I for one couldn't get that ancient Egyptian imagery out of my head.
There are other standout tracks as well, particularly "Thy Sorrow Bequeathed" and "The Scarlet Forsaken," both of which feature instantly hummable guitar melodies while at the same time retaining their apocalyptic and frenzied nature. This is war music people. Surely all fans of quality, talented metal will want this record, so go get it already!
Score: 9 - it takes an AWFUL lot to get to 10!
Album: Dark Requiems
You would never know this band was from England.
I associate English bands with oh, I don't know, My Dying Bride style doomy gothic music or the legendary twin-guitar attack of Iron Maiden, not the cold, raw PURE EVIL black metal contained here! Hecate Enthroned do a SUPERB job of meshing furious blast beat drumming, swirling yet melodic guitarwork, screeching vocals, haunting melodies and yes, a touch of mesmerizing gothic imagery. It's a fantastic record, period.
Beginning with an almost soothing, keyboard laden intro, the album wastes no time in pulling you in, only to smash your cerebrum to pieces with the terrorizing wall of sound set forth in "The Pagan Swords of Legend." There is some seriously insane guitarwork and drumming going on here, and if I didn't know any better, a VERY Egyptian-sounding theme running through the background. The album progresses at a nice pace, never really letting up, laying intricate keyboard tracks when necessary, and just going all out with layer upon layer of sound and fury. Most of the songs feature completely undecipherable vocals (as might be expected), Jon dishing out evil screech after evil screech. But Hecate does a great job of mixing things up a bit; for example, "Forever in Ebony Drowning" has a much more obvious Gothic feel to it and then out of nowhere, they break into some serious riffage for the headbanging faithful. It's one of the things that truly impressed me about the record; they aren't as predictable as other black metal bands and make you want to keep listening to see where the song - or part of song - goes next. Really good stuff. 4 tracks into the album and I'm already extremely satisfied, so what does Hecate Enthroned do? Lay down the strongest song thus far - "Upon the Kingdom Throne." I don't really know what it was, but this song has a serious Powerslave-era Maiden thing going on behind the scenes and is much more complex than one might think. I for one couldn't get that ancient Egyptian imagery out of my head.
There are other standout tracks as well, particularly "Thy Sorrow Bequeathed" and "The Scarlet Forsaken," both of which feature instantly hummable guitar melodies while at the same time retaining their apocalyptic and frenzied nature. This is war music people. Surely all fans of quality, talented metal will want this record, so go get it already!
Score: 9 - it takes an AWFUL lot to get to 10!
