Hecate Enthroned - Embrace The Godless Aeon

Key Facts

Country: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Genre: Symphonic Black Metal

Release Date: 25th January 2019

Record Label(s): Salem Rose Music

Band Members

Nigel Dennen - guitar

Dylan Hughes - bass guitar

Andy Milnes - guitar

Pete White - keyboards

Gareth Hardy - drums

Joe Stamps - vocals

Hecate Enthroned - Temples That Breathe

Review

Rating (out of 5🤘): 🤘🤘🤘.5

Favourite Track(s): Temples That Breathe, Revelations In Autumn Flame, Goddess of Dark Misfits, The Shuddering Giant

From the land of the dragon, Hecate Enthroned embrace the godless with symphonic flame on the winds of doom! This is the sixth album from the Wrexham sextet, packing a wealth of songwriting and compositional experience to rival any other symphonic black metal band out there. Many have drawn comparisons with Cradle of Filth in the bands early releases but Embrace The Godless Aeon is a complete contrast to those earlier records and is a fire breathing monster in its own right.

Upon a first listen, it has all your stereotypical symphonic black metal elements and musical passages, but with a distinctly British Gothic edge to it. With that in mind, it is easy to see where the Cradle of Filth comparisons come in, especially in Goddess of Dark Misfits. Compared to their earlier stuff it's really good to hear low screams on this record, kind of death metal like which I think gives the songs more balls. It separates them from the Cradle of Filth comparison for sure. From listening to the album I get this dark, dungeon vibe and it really draws me into the songs as a consequence, as epic it as it sounds it also sounds evil in equal measure. An example of that would be Enthrallment, with enthral being an archaic word for enslavement, it quite fits the dungeon vibe. The synths aren't cheesy either, I know with some of the more symphonic bands they can go overboard on the synths and make it sound tacky or more like power metal. With this however the extra dimensions that pad layers give the songs is complimentary to the rest of the songwriting. One of the biggest shocks I received was the operatic singing in Erebus and Terror, I'd been lulled into this false sense of security and expected it to sound similar to the rest of the album but man that woman has some phenomenal vocals! I think the album as whole is very well composed and arranged and has distinctly British (well Welsh) perfectionism to it that I see through a lot of British metal, that "if it ain't perfect and we've used all the resources, its not being released", if that makes sense.

Production wise, I get a sort of Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir style of production. There's a big focus on the synths and symphonic elements as they're really prevalent in the mix, I think they kind of overpower the guitars a bit in certain areas. There seems to be a mini tussle for that mid range sonic space between the synths and guitars, but its not a massive problem as you can still hear both clearly. There is a significant amount of weight in the low end that really supports the guitars, synths and vocals that I love. As sometimes the low end gets phased out by all the high end in these sorts of arrangements so for me its good to hear a chunky low end. Overall, it's very well mixed album but there is nothing that really stands out for me production wise as it seems to follow that symphonic black metal production mould.

It's been great to review something epic from the land of the dragon! A band as distinguished as Hecate Enthroned are up there in the higher echelons with the likes of Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir and Bal-Sagoth. If you haven't heard of them check out Hecate Enthroned now!