PESTILENT HEX – Sorceries of Sanguine & Shadow

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7.0

• Bands:
  PESTILENT HEX
• Duration: 00:45:47
• Available from: 11/22/2024
• Label:

• Debemur Deaths

Streaming not yet available

The return of Pestilent Hex takes place at a moment of particular momentum for the so-called symphonic black metal trend, and although it is still a little early to talk about a 'revival' phenomenon – like the traditional death metal that exploded in the underground a few years ago – there is no doubt that a certain type of approach is gradually regaining space among the bands and fans of the Black Flame, with illustrious exhumations (Old Man's Child, The Kovenant) and several new bands (Moonlight Sorcery, Stormkeep, but also Worm of the latest releases) intent on celebrating the glories of a musical season that now seemed forgotten by most.
In this scenario of keyboards and chenille cloaks dusted off from the attic, the Finnish duo – who we remember boasting an experience that is anything but negligible, coming from the likes of Convocation, Corpsessed, Desolate Shrine and Tyranny – therefore returns to the market with a work that does not overturn its stylistic will, while overturning the balance between 'atmosphere' and 'extreme' to emphasize the brutal component of the proposal as much as possible.
In short, that of “Sorceries of Sanguine & Shadow” is a context where the music goes hand in hand with the cover and the title, as if the band had wanted to replace the phantasmagorical landscapes of the debut “The Ashen Abhorrence” with the humid dungeons of some castle used as a place of witchcraft and torture. All this translates into a darker and more violent album, in which the contribution of the synths – albeit constant – is left in the background, while outbursts based on blast-beats and guitars that wink at vintage Dark Funeral rise in the chair to underline the cold and bitter mood of the collection, making listening a more compact but also less dynamic and changing experience than that of 2022.
In fact, the feeling is that something, in terms of depth of writing and variety of solutions, has been lost along the way by L. Oathe and M. Malignant, with various songs in the tracklist which, dampening the thrust of the symphonic apparatus and of the atmospheric component, settle on more predictable and 'standard' coordinates.
In any case, it is worth underlining that these characteristics do not make “Sorceries…” a mediocre album or one devoid of episodes worthy of mention (take the horrors “Sciomancy and Sortilege” and “Sanguine Gnosis”): the caliber of the protagonists can be felt all, and although both have done better (both together and in their respective projects), for fans of the genre the second full-length under the name Pestilent Hex probably remains one of the highlights of this autumn.
If it ever sees the light, we will understand what setting the next chapter will lead us to.