I have had the privilege of reviewing this French bands last four releases going back to 2017’s ‘Serpentine’ album and during that time Hyrgal has been steadfastly consistent yet highly ambitious in writing provocative searing black metal, that touches base with a raft of other subgenres to create releases of enduring ingenuity, and this latest six track EP is no different. I’d even say the band, headed up by Clément Flandrois has crafted a release that is potentially their most vitriolic to date yet tempered by the way the band ingrains their own identity.

With acoustic guitar adorning the start of the release on ‘Deuil Éclair’ the opener has a bereft toning, a haunting eerie melancholy that drips with grief before the unmitigated assault that crashes in with unceremonious sadism. With the vocals possessing acrimonious hostility the song has swingeing tempo deviations to match the laryngeal gradations, a facet this act has always had but when those changes appear the momentum seems to edge up a notch or two as the track also reveals a clean vocal soundbite.

‘Phalanges Assassines’ continues the EP and with dissonant devastation the song borders a war metal footing, its industrial like carnage is obliterating and whilst there are plenty of black metal acts within this sphere Hyrgal inject everything with a sense of melody that hooks you in. The band has always had an avant-garde element to their structuring and this release is no different, as the song plummets in pace to produce a potent accessible assault where the jagged oblique riffing stabs and mutilates, metaphorically speaking of course. Same applies to ‘Épique Spleen’ and where the previous tune was hideously fast this one reins the speed in somewhat, double kick gently eases the listener into its malformed sonic grotesquery as an ominous dread filled aura permeates the tune.

‘Gorge Blanche – Surin Noir’ changes yet again, the mood channelled down a morose ambience with spoken word vocals before the dense impacting riff crushes the opening segment. With a slower guise there is that ethos of pervading intensity, fronds of finesse are added through the delicate guitar work which is counterbalanced by the more oppressive metal sections that make the song tortured and crookedly caustic. Many black metal bands opt for an apocalyptic soundscape but Hyrgal do it with such minacious malignancy you can feel it poisoning, infecting as the releases main tunes are completed with ‘Hono Ga Byo O Musabori Kuu Basho’, a desolate soundscape saturated in austerity and harnessing a bleakness that belies its minimalistic approach.

The release closes with a cover of Marduk’s ‘Dark Endless’ and you can clearly see why the band has opted to cover this tune rather than anything from the bands latter era catalogue. The original had a sprawling malevolence and Hyrgal’s version is no different except the sound is fuller and inherently savage, especially when the song drops into the speed section half way through making it a fine way to close the EP.

I have never had a negative thing to say about Hyrgal, they always seem to conjure up contemporary black metal but still reeking of the so called glory days of the 90s. A fine slab of pestilential blackness to immerse your unworthy soul within.

(9/10 Martin Harris)

https://www.facebook.com/Hyrgal

https://ladlo.bandcamp.com/album/session-fun-raire-anno-mmxxiii