There’s a comment that goes with this album, stating “no pink unicorns here”. This is very true. The comment reminded me of the time when someone said to me “Andrew, you’ll never be pink and fluffy”. This is equally true of Hierophant. There are no conventions or restrictions of time. One minute, three minutes – it’s all the same. There is just an impressively deathly black atmosphere, as if heads need to be sawn off and depths need to be fathomed.
And yet this is not an exercise in struggling to escape from mud and dead bodies. There’s plenty of that too of course but after three deathly tunes, which leave us in doubt that there is a very severe and harsh world out there, the title track rumbles on for a bit longer but in a darkly melodic way. So too “Crematorium” appeals to the senses. From “Crematorium”, it’s “In Decay”, an ominously doomy track which forges forward steadily like a monster truck, crushing everything around it. This short but forceful piece is followed by the sludge-filled contempt of “Sentenced to Death”, but only once Hierophant have built up the funereal mood. To keep us on our toes, we move onto the thrashier but no less dark and deathly “The Great Hoax” and “Trauma”. It’s very heavy but there is shape and structure in these death metal odes. The final piece “The Eternal Void” is eleven minutes long. It sticks to the mould of sludginess, which goes before it. A fearsome atmosphere is developed. The progression is steady and as always ferocious. It’s like a march to war. Then four minutes in, we are subjected to black sound distortions and a haunting ring. This sonic storm is the eternal void itself. It’s surprising and refreshingly different. This experimentalism has great impact.
There are a lot of short tracks, and overall “Mass Grave” is short at 30 minutes. It’s full of strength and always maintains intensity. This is the fourth album from the Italians. It’s a very impressive work.
(8.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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