Following on from their excellent 2020 outing, Eden in Reverse, Greek experimentalists Hail Spirit Noir threw us not just a single curveball in 2021's synthwave soundtrack Mannequins, but a second in this real follow-up album, Fossil Gardens. Building on the synth-heavy prog of Eden in Reverse but reverting to add a hefty dose of blackened heaviness, Fossil Gardens seems like something of a confused mess on initial listens, as undoubtedly pleasant as it is to listen to. Yet the band remain excellent songwriters and more than capable of crafting hooks to snag the ears and keep them entranced through the process of learning the song's twists and turns in those initial listens. And it's a real joy to uncover more and more with each play of Fossil Gardens, savouring the discoveries and loving it as much as Eden in Reverse along the way.

Everyone will have their own favourite of the two, of course, yet the more adventurous and underground-feeling Fossil Gardens threatens to take the lead at points. Early album highlight The Temple of Curved Space rides in like Arcturus on acid, full of electronic atmospherics and space rocking grooves, advancing through blackened rumbling drums and progressive-tinged guitars matching the synths for earspace. It grows more psychedelic as it develops, like an otherworldly Dimmu Borgir backed by Oranssi Pazuzu, laden with shimmering effects beneath the captivating and grandly melodic blackened metal, topped by Dimitris Dimitrakopoulos' deep and resonant clean vocals which are used just enough to be as effective as possible. It, like the rest of Fossil Gardens, is far less whimsical than the previous album - the doom-tinged Curse You, Entropia here alone is heavier than anything from Eden in Reverse - yet equally as experimental.

The Blue Dot, for instance, shifts wildly between burbling synth-drenched melodies and blackened metal not a million miles away from something like Borknagar thanks to the majestic feel, dominated by harsh bellows for vocals. Starfront Promenade initially seems built around the goth-tinged clean vocals but even that has space for galloping atmospheric black psychedelic heaviness as a serious counterpoint. And the closing title track is at once the most progressive and black metal; initially embracing cold black metal, spacey and bold, with snarled desperate vocals inviting you on a voyage beyond mere existence, before the synths envelope you and turn it into some Devin Townsend-esque morass of melodies and sounds with clean vocals emerging from the soundscape.

Those who know the band only from Eden in Reverse may be a little put off by the dominance of harsh vocals throughout the album, yet the clean vocals have real impact when they make an appearance - the dreamy outro to The Blue Dot a fine example - and the music itself is melodic and atmospheric enough that you don't quite miss them. The Road to Awe, a ten minute monster and longest piece present, begins with gothic clean vocals and develops almost like classic Pink Floyd before launching into galloping and grandiose symphonic metal akin to Limbonic Art. There's not a bad or filler piece present, even interlude Ludwig in Orbit, and it's truly difficult to see how the band top this. Maybe as a whole some will find it less of a cohesive package than Eden in Reverse yet the advances made here are exciting and interesting enough that it's genuinely hard to pick favourites. Whichever emanation of the band is your choice, Fossil Gardens is a remarkably good album that will please fans of keyboard-enhanced blackened metal in all its shades of darkness.