Frenetic, psychologically challenging black metal is the greeting. I expected this, having reviewed Hail Spirit Noir’s previous bizarre work “Pneuma” (2012).
Once again, ideas come at you from all angles. “Blood Guru” is exciting and colourful with its complex infrastructure. It’s desperate and anarchic, slowing down unfathomably into a melancholic mood. The melancholy is sustained for a little while, but these Greeks like to keep us on our toes and descend into nightmares.
Black metal is at the heart of this deadened affair. The tales are of demons, Satan and a satyrs’ orgy. With all the irregular developments, these aren’t songs as such. In fact, I found that this avant-garde, twisted metal has an element of comedy. Whether it’s deliberate or not, I do not know. Flutes and complicated pattery drums are thrown into the mix. I think “off centre” is the phrase on this occasion. “Satan Time” comes straight out of the lunatic asylum. The steady guitar line, which features throughout this eccentric work, holds it together. A dreamy yet dreary lyrical line reinforces the sombre mood. What is meant by the repetitive line “Satan is Time”? I do not know. The whistling, wispy air brings back the ghoulish melancholy of “Blood Guru”.
To my relief, the pace picks up on “Satyriko Orgio” but it turns out to be as mind-controlling and purposefully unpleasant as that which precedes it. What are these people on? Ghastly moans cut through the agitated instrumentals. But with them is an old-school style of keyboard sound which is used to good effect at the start of the gloomy “The Mermaid”. Its beginning, appropriately enough, recalls dripping water. It then veers off into creepily sinister territory. The lyrical style simply adds to the overall feel of discomfort and alienation. Those weepy, fluty sounds return and for the first time since the start of this draining agony began, the scene develops into a frenetic, exciting, prog-laden soundscape. By contrast, “Hunters” is mechanical and hard-going. Much better is the closing track “Oi Magoi”, which concentrates on reconfirming the ghoulish and murderous atmosphere which has prevailed throughout. “Oi Magoi” (The Magicians) is like a swinging pendulum but manages to convey not the sense of a regular heartbeat but instead the smell of death.
This album is more noteworthy for its effective development of sinister atmospheres than for its melodies. If there was such a colour as psychedelically grey, “Oi Magoi” would be it. I cannot claim that it is easy listening.
(6.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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