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Notable not just for new material from the always worth-hearing Drudkh, but also for the first new material from Hades Almighty in fourteen years, this split is something of a must-have for black metal fans. Starting with Drudkh's part of the split, One Who Talks With the Fog, this is immediately recognisable as more of the same career renaissance that the likes of A Furrow Cut Short provided. The two eight-minute-plus pieces here are terrific, lengthy yet thoughtful pieces of melodic black metal that don't shun brutality or atmosphere for the sake of a good tune. The nearly nine-minute Golden Horse opens downright violently, death metal chugging at light speed atop blasting drums, soon developing into something more atmospheric as the riffs turn black. Fiery Serpent is no less furious, but is more expansive and atmospheric from the beginning, perhaps a little more mournful towards the midpoint. Hades Almighty were never one of black metal's biggest bands, perhaps infamous more for guitarist Jørn Inge Tunsberg's arson prison sentence than their actual music. Yet if true, this should change, as this is a very strong collection of songs. The rolling Viking chants of Pyre Era, Black! itself are oddly gripping, like some lost album from the early nineties, while the following Funeral Storm takes a slower, doomier approach, focused on the vocals of Ask Ty. Eight-minute finale Bound, meanwhile, returns to the Viking approach with an atmospheric acoustic opening before turning strange with keyboard plinks and effect-laden riffs, building into a storming stomper very much like classic Bathory. A good tease of both band's futures, hopefully? |
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Killing Songs : Drudkh - Golden Horse, Fiery Serpent – Hades Almighty – Pyre Era, Black! Bound |
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