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Hecate
(Dark Matter Recordings)
In
the ancient Greece Hecate was the
goddess of darkness, she represented the
obscurity and its terrors, in the
moonless nigh she walked the earth
accompanied by a howling pack of
phantasmagoric hounds… But besides the
mythological meaning, “Hecate” is the
sixth work of this New York City based
quartet of Sludge/Doomsters and the
second one I have the honour of
reviewing. Why I mentioned the origins
of Hecate? You may ask… Well, the music
of Agnosis has become definitively more
obscure and heavier than showed in its
previous work “Zero”, and the name of an
ancient goddess of darkness perfectly
fits with this new facet. The line up
changes seems to have affected
enormously their sound. The vocal duties
are now on Austin Lunn, and he delivers
one of the obscurest elements of the
whole work, with his ripping mid toned
screams, sometimes thrashing or even
blackish in some passages. The
Sabbatical riffs still reigns supreme
over this work adding suffocating
atmospheres and oppressive harmonies.
The whole music moves slower and
heavier, but still ranging between the
dense lava-like sounding passages and
the pretty fast, sometimes thrashing
pulses. Agnosis seems to have leaved
behind a big part of their strong
rocking sound, completely focusing in
the densest side of Metal. The Ep starts
with “Unholy Lord” a strong mid to slow
paced dense piece of Sludge/Doom Metal
with agonic semi-guttural screams,
powerful chords, and some interesting,
quite rocking lead guitar lines adding
doses of groove. Then “...And Yet We
Fight to Win” comes, this track is
definitely my favourite, with mid paced
velocities, intense, catchy riffs, raw,
aggressive vocals and a pretty complex
structure that range from slow Doom to
heavy Sludge, this track stands out from
the rest. Closing this Ep is “The End
Times”, a completely bipolar song and
the most varied track of this work;
starting as a Thrash-inspired, fast
paced Metal piece and breaking into slow
droning passages, all these adorned by
aggressive/tenebrous (respectively)
ripping vocals. Once again, the
production is not a problem, “Hecate”
sound as strong and powerful as their
style requires… If you thought “Zero”
was a great album, “Hecate” will
certainly blow your fucking head off.
(AP) |
