Hail Spirit Noir – Fossil Gardens
Release Date: 28th June 2024
Label: Agonia Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Psychedelic Black Metal, Experimental, Progressive Metal.
FFO: A Forest Of Stars, Oranssi Pazuzu, Altar Of Plagues.
Review By: Ross Bowie
Hail Spirit Noir are back with their ethereal and space-infused black metal, and this time the Greeks are looking to push their sound into more extreme and bizarre territory. Picture writing black metal while looking out the window of a spaceship and Fossil Gardens is probably what would come to mind. The band mix synths and vocal styles against a tremolo-picked backdrop and are able to build a world around you as every song, sucks you in.
Fossil Gardens opens with Starfront Promenande, which has a steady build, starting quite synth-heavy with thick gothic undertones before the guitar boots the door off its hinges and explodes the song forward with the vocals switching between an immaculate, almost narrator-esque style straight into abrasive and visceral screams. However, the burst of pace doesn’t stop the synth work, which is used almost as a world-building tool. Adding space-like elements throughout the song while using pads to create an ethereal element. It’s a trick that if overused would start to sound a bit cheesy and forced, but the band utilizes it well.
The album matches the two sides of the band’s sound well, on one hand, you have a pristine space adventure and then on the other, you have a swamp-filled sludge fighting to drag you under. The different vocal approaches on The Temple Of Curved Space shouldn’t blend as well as it does, but the band somehow manages to make it sound cohesive. The screams are so raw and gut-punching but playing off often beautiful soundscapes, this leads into the production job.
The production on this album is incredible, being able to pick out every little detail that the synth is doing while not losing any of the bite behind the guitars is a fine art. The rhythm section is tight and when there are more space-lead ambient moments the bass fills in the gaps and keeps that intensity up. When the themes of the album revolve around a lot about finding a balance between light and darkness, the production does a great job of walking that line between the two sounds and giving them both enough space to sound full.
The album ends with the title track, which encapsulates everything the band has done up to this point and packs it all into one song. The different corners of their sound, the different vocal styles and riffs are all melded together against a synth backdrop, fully taking you on a journey. While the album sounds at points incredibly heavy, it does manage to get across positive messages, none more clear than the Fossil Gardens refrain of “When there is light, there is hope”. This phrase sums up the entire album, with how well the band have struck a balance between opposed sounds while crafting it all into one experience. Hail Spirit Noir has levelled up from their previous work, and hopefully this is only the beginning of that trajectory.
(4 / 5)
