Style: Black metal, progressive metal, spaaaaace (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Enslaved, A Forest of Stars, Midnight Odyssey
Country: Greece
Release date: 28 June 2024
Out of all major metal subgenres, the combination of progressive metal with black metal has strangely enough yet to see much commercial success within the limited realm of prog fans. This is not for a lack of innovative artists, mind you—black metal has been at the forefront of metal innovation for years—yet somehow, the two subgenres have by and large remained culturally separate entities, with even the most major acts like Enslaved and Ihsahn struggling to enter the cultural prog metal pantheon in the same way major acts of other prog + extreme metal subgenres like The Ocean or Ne Obliviscaris seem to have no trouble with. Hailing from Greece, Hail Spirit Noir is another entry pushing a mixture of black metal and prog into creative directions, gaining notoriety for their incorporation of lighthearted psychedelic/space rock, but with their new album Fossil Gardens they’re pushing for blacker pastures—do they succeed?
In true psychedelic fashion, the experience is wonderfully immersive. Opener “Starfront Promenade” sucks you in with space ambient and the warm, slightly reverb-laden singing of Theoharis before it morphs smoothly into the epic space black metal sound that will define much of the album as both layers cosmic ambience and wiuwiu synth melodies contort around blast beats and icy tremolos. Theoharis’s ghastly harsh vocals are a natural fit, filling the soundscape out amazingly, but sadly the mastering on the drums and the guitars is a tad overpowering so he’s more in the background than I’d like, and when he starts singing during the black metal parts he becomes a bit of a footnote. Besides the vocals though, the production is cozy, spacious, and completely enveloping as it gives space to every layer of the atmosphere to breathe in.1Out of all major metal subgenres, the combination of progressive metal with black metal has strangely enough yet to see much commercial success within the limited realm of prog fans. This is not for a lack of innovative artists, mind you—black metal has been at the forefront of metal innovation for years—yet somehow, the two subgenres have by and large remained culturally separate entities, with even the most major acts like Enslaved and Ihsahn struggling to enter the cultural prog metal pantheon in the same way major acts of other prog + extreme metal subgenres like The Ocean or Ne Obliviscaris seem to have no trouble with. Hailing from Greece, Hail Spirit Noir is another entry pushing a mixture of black metal and prog into creative directions, gaining notoriety for their incorporation of lighthearted psychedelic/space rock, but with their new album Fossil Gardens they’re pushing for blacker pastures—do they succeed?
In true psychedelic fashion, the experience is wonderfully immersive. Opener “Starfront Promenade” sucks you in with space ambient and the warm, slightly reverb-laden singing of Theoharis before it morphs smoothly into the epic space black metal sound that will define much of the album as both layers cosmic ambience and wiuwiu synth melodies contort around blast beats and icy tremolos. Theoharis’s ghastly harsh vocals are a natural fit, filling the soundscape out amazingly, but sadly the mastering on the drums and the guitars is a tad overpowering so he’s more in the background than I’d like, and when he starts singing during the black metal parts he becomes a bit of a footnote. Besides the vocals though, the production is cozy, spacious, and completely enveloping as it gives space to every layer of the atmosphere to breathe in.
But simply blast beating well does not a good black metal album maketh; fortunately, Hail Spirit Noir do have some tricks up their sleeve. “Curse you, Entropia” is built around a proggy, sprawling midtempo riff whose 6/4 rhythmic cadence is always maintained in one way or another as the rest of the song modulates around it. Drummer Foivos Chatzis also often spices things up with his thunderous, tom-laden fills, pounding rhythms that remind me of later Enslaved, and interesting accentuations, something which central epic “The Road to Awe” shows especially well. Furthermore, “Ludwig in Orbit” is an interesting a cappella interlude with a church organ that leads nicely into the title track closer which does the most with its atmosphere of all the tracks by shooting the wiuwiu synths like falling stars and adding some more electronic touches.
This however, does not prevent Fossil Gardens from homogeneity. For all its experimentation, the mental image of psychedelic cosmic synths over epic tremolos and blast beats remains dominant throughout. I appreciate the attempt at a more black metal-driven sound, but when most of it feels like your average second wave worship, my interest starts to wane (looking at you, “The Blue Dot”). This is also where the mixing choices really comes to bite as the clean vocals could have provided some much needed variety that now got lost whenever performed next to the metal parts, something which epic “The Road to Awe” really could have benefitted from as it sadly blends together with the rest of the album despite its more pronounced ebb and flow structure. Only the climax with its aggressive, almost thrashy riff and melodic guitar solo at the end (more of those please) serves to distinguish the track, but it’s too little too late.
I was fairly excited for Fossil Genera Gardens when I saw its release announced, hoping to be able to further my quest of convincing the community of progressive black metal’s greatness and creativity, but while the incorporation of space ambient is fairly innovative within prog, for black metal it is quite standard, which extends to the quality of the black metal itself. Some great moments remain and the experience never goes below simply pleasant, but by and large I would rather advise you to try one of their older albums or to get into Enslaved instead.
- which is a shame because his lines are good ↩︎
Recommended tracks: Starfront Promenade; Curse you, Entropia; Fossil Gardens
You may also like: Ars Moriendi, Dordeduh, The Lost Sun
Final verdict: 6/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: Agonia Records – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Hail Spirit Noir is:
– Theoharis (vocals, guitars)
– Haris (keyboards)
– Demian (bass)
– Foivos Chatzis (drums)
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