HORNA – Nyx (Hymn of the Wind)

vote
7.5

• Band:
  HORN
• Duration: 00:43:57
• Available from: 09/13/2024
• Label:

• World Terror Committee

The Horna forge knows no respite and continues to forge excellent black jewels by working the rawest material of black metal.
“Nyx (Hymnejä Yölle)” is the twelfth full-length and adds a precious addition to the discography of this Finnish band that has been haunting the international black metal scene for thirty years, to our delight.
After the excellent “Kuoleman Kirjo”, the release’s running time has returned to the standards, even though this time the songs are perhaps a bit too long (they average around seven minutes). There are even more marked differences between the new release and the previous one, but it’s worth underlining how our guys have never betrayed their vision of an irreverent, pure and unconditional black metal, as violent as it is emotional.
Even if this time the production is really professional and the sound is clean, Horna remain Horna; sure, a colder and dirtier sound would have undoubtedly helped even more to create disturbing atmospheres soaked in blood and blasphemy, yet they can allow themselves all this because the final result is still that of a stab in the back.
For a change, this time too Shatraug is in good shape and very inspired, just listen to a song like “Hymni II” to realize it: it's yet another testament signed by the Finnish combo.
In these new chapters we perhaps find some more melodies than usual that are usually explored during long midtempo passages, such as in the third song, while the beginning of the next song takes your breath away for the intensity with which it begins and then continues without respite.
If there is someone who has so far snubbed this band considering it too raw and without an original style, perhaps with this new work he can find the moment to redeem himself and finally give due credit to those who, after all these years, are still 'true' in spirit and in the extreme music they play.
The Finnish scene, also thanks to the members of Horna (and their various projects and bands in which they are involved), fortunately continues to preserve the black metal spirit that in other countries has been sacrificed in the name of evolution and change, thus distorting its true essence.
Luckily for us there are other bands around that are even more extreme than Horna and other countries like Finland where the black flame burns with vehemence, but this does not take away from the weight of this band within the black metal scene.
To conclude this compact album, comes the somewhat unexpected final chapter “Kuoleva Lupaus” which sees the presence of the former bassist (now in Kryptamok) Hex Inferi: a solemn and essential hymn in neofolk guise, but with an invisible touch in the manner of Horna.
A classy finale to make us understand what this reality is made of, which luckily for us seems to be immortal.