Folgore Notturna

The second release of the Italian band Hexentomb would be the ep ‘Folgore Notturna’; see the cover in order to understand these two words. A hint: it has nothing to do with the tree. Anyway, the band continues with the musical style they started to explore on their debut output. Satyricon, the current one that is, can be named as an influence, along with other black metal project, whose oeuvre have a slightly mechanic and sterile touch.

Compared with their debut album the music has changed. The ideas appear more balanced, slower as well as calmer interludes were woven into the compositions or placed among the tracks. Nevertheless, the emphasis on a rather cold and industrial type of music has remained. In terms of the sound, the following setting had been applied for this recording: the left speaker has the lead-guitar, the right one loves the rhythm one, in the background there is a bass somewhere, while the vocals are on top of everything. Well … not always … but it describes pretty accurate the basic outstretches in a succinct way.

Once the listener puts the CD into a player, in order to give it a spin, then this person might be rather confused about the first two compositions. ‘Heritage's Edge’ opens this release, but it does not really get it started and the reason for this is – nomen est omen? – ‘Ways to Madness’. Why? The logic follows this path: while the former sets the general direction of the music and actually prepares the listener for the things to come, the latter – which is a calm ambient track – disrupts it again. It seems as pointless as some acoustic interludes, which some bands cannot resist in the middle of their album; sadly, even though the examples are not legion, they are nevertheless considerably large.

Therefore, once the ‘Ways to Madness’ are being walked upon, ‘The Seeds of Madness’ can be – harvested, consumed, digested … whatever – and the music is finally able to lift off; so to speak. Interestingly, the first seconds of this track create the impression as if the band has never done something else on this output and has always played this particular type of black metal and never wandered away from it. With verve – or with vengeance – the riffs lash off, only to be taken back close to zero once a minute or so has passed. Hexentomb continue this play with tempos to a certain degree throughout ‘Folgore Notturna’, and it helps them to create a distraction to the clinical black metal style. ‘Media Res’ – why not ‘In Medias Res’? – would be another ambient one … just to complete the confusion as well as this aspect of the discussion.

In terms of the influences a wide array can or should be mentioned; aside from those listed above already. Thrash makes an appearance, industrial elements one like to turn in as well and even calm acoustic-like sounds were woven into the whole framework. Therefore, it might be best to describe the 2010 release of this band from Italy as a hybrid of various concept and sounds. It is an attempt to combine a mechanical black metal style with counter motives, in as well as between the compositions. Compared with their debut album, the second one is a step in the right direction and even though it leaves a quite a good amount of room left for improvement, it is nevertheless recommended to those folks whose taste has an emphasis on the modern type of black metal.

Note:
Not many copies have been released – between 50 and 100 when the label is consistent with their demo policy –, so you had better hurry if you still want one. It should be noted that the Internet platform of the label runs anything but stable at times.

Based on a review originally written for ‘A dead spot of light (Number 14)’:
http://www.archive.org/details/ADeadSpotOfLight...Number14