Duck-friendly – 72%
Felix 1666, October 19th, 2019
Agood artwork does not necessarily indicate a strong musical content – and vice versa. Here we have a lousy cover, but what about the music? Well, Hecate Enthroned always stood in the shadow of this other symphonic black metal circus from the UK and it is a self-chosen fate as long as you cooperate exactly with that female singer who has been invited by Cradle of Filth before. Seems as if only one woman in the whole United Kingdom is willing to contribute to a black metal work. Anyway. the six dudes still rely on the more or less tried and tested components. This means that broad keyboards fight with pretty harsh guitars. Sometimes the band is giving the atmosphere, read: keyboards, almost too much room. But at the end of the day, Hecate Enthroned find a balance, not the perfect one, but a pretty good one.
The nagging of the lead vocalists reminds me of the voice of Donald Duck, but he also manages some more demonic death metal approaches. One cannot blame the vocals for being invariable, however, this well-known mix has become somewhat stale. This attribute could also be taken for the compositional approach, because the dudes from the British Island do not offer surprising elements. Nevertheless, they mix the different sections of their meticulously designed songs in a coherent way and therefore they avoid the creation of a lame duck. By the way, too many ducks here, isn’t it? Thank God, the sound engineer was definitely no animal. The album scores with a very adequate sound. It is heavy, dense and powerful.
The music offers the entire portfolio of keyboard-driven black metal. Majestic and melancholic, quite brutal and dignified, the songs combine elements of all kind. Hecate Enthroned are no amateurs, every sequence blends seamlessly with the next one. Unfortunately, this does not mean that each and every section works. For example, the piano outro of “Goddess of Dark Misfits” annoys with its kitschy touch. Yet this remains an exception. Mostly, the songs flow smoothly by, creating neither euphoria nor causing boredom.
Fans of the genre will definitely not be disappointed and I also feel sympathy for the formation and this output, but that’s all. Really intense parts which could catapult the output into the highest regions are hard to find and if they occur, they are too short and accompanied by pseudo-romantic sections (“Enthrallment” is a good example in this context). Too bad that the dudes avoid to give more full speed ahead and I also would have preferred a less opulent structure of some titles. All these little deficiencies do not ruin the overall impression and the music has doubtlessly more to offer than the artwork, but Hecate Enthroned seem to be caught in their way of proceeding. Be that as it may, due to some truly strong details, for instance the background vocals in “Silent Conversations with Distant Stars”, and the fact that the album grows slowly but maybe steadily with every new round, a rating that exceeds the magical 70% mark is adequate.
Originally written for Metalegion.com
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