After fourteen years of silence, Norwegian Hades Almighty are back with a new release and a new lineup with Ask Ty, drummer of Kampfar and Kraków as simply Ask, taking over Janto Garmandslund on the vocals. The band, however, has not been inactive during these years and has performed several live shows; but this year they decided to enter the studio to record the new EP that is perhaps, and hopefully, the prologue to a new album.
Pyre Era, Black ! (this is the title of the EP) contains three songs for a total playtime of almost twenty minutes; nevertheless, there is a decidedly inverse proportion between length and variety: these three songs are very different from each other and each of them experiments with different styles. The chords of the first and eponymous track have rock nuances and one cannot help hearing an influence from black'n roll at least at the beginning. The song is structured on the same chord sequence, but the cadenced rhythm and the harsh sound and are able to give one adrenalin. The second song “Funeral Storm” also has powerful chords, but there is also a certain melody. The third song “Bound”, the longest one, is perhaps also the most elaborated one: acoustic guitars, refined bass textures, clean but powerful, almost Viking, voices combined with guitar melodies. In this song the best singing performance of Ask Ty is concentrated; the performance of drummer Remi Andersen is also very good throughout the EP.
Pyre Era, Black! is in line with the style of Hades Almighty and sounds like the natural evolution of The Pulse of Decay, that is relatively slow tempos and nothing like traditional blast beats or tremolo. In my opinion an innovation is a harsher and more powerful sound and a larger soundscape; I also think that this EP is more addictive than Hades Almighty used to be in the past. I'm curious to see how the Norwegian trio will cope with a full length, but this EP is definitely a gem.
Notes:
Release date: October 23 2015 on Dark Essence Records. The digital album can be purchased at price of 5 euros through the Bandcamp player below.
Tracklist:
1. Pyre Era, Black!
2. Funeral Storm
3. Bound
Personnel:
Remi Andersen: Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Jørn Inge Tunsberg: Guitars, Keyboards
Ask Ty: Vocals
Text by Herjann
[email protected]
Pyre Era, Black ! (this is the title of the EP) contains three songs for a total playtime of almost twenty minutes; nevertheless, there is a decidedly inverse proportion between length and variety: these three songs are very different from each other and each of them experiments with different styles. The chords of the first and eponymous track have rock nuances and one cannot help hearing an influence from black'n roll at least at the beginning. The song is structured on the same chord sequence, but the cadenced rhythm and the harsh sound and are able to give one adrenalin. The second song “Funeral Storm” also has powerful chords, but there is also a certain melody. The third song “Bound”, the longest one, is perhaps also the most elaborated one: acoustic guitars, refined bass textures, clean but powerful, almost Viking, voices combined with guitar melodies. In this song the best singing performance of Ask Ty is concentrated; the performance of drummer Remi Andersen is also very good throughout the EP.
Pyre Era, Black! is in line with the style of Hades Almighty and sounds like the natural evolution of The Pulse of Decay, that is relatively slow tempos and nothing like traditional blast beats or tremolo. In my opinion an innovation is a harsher and more powerful sound and a larger soundscape; I also think that this EP is more addictive than Hades Almighty used to be in the past. I'm curious to see how the Norwegian trio will cope with a full length, but this EP is definitely a gem.
Notes:
Release date: October 23 2015 on Dark Essence Records. The digital album can be purchased at price of 5 euros through the Bandcamp player below.
Tracklist:
1. Pyre Era, Black!
2. Funeral Storm
3. Bound
Personnel:
Remi Andersen: Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Jørn Inge Tunsberg: Guitars, Keyboards
Ask Ty: Vocals
Text by Herjann
[email protected]