Of Hidden Chronicles & Stellar Fires

Of Hidden Chonicles & Stellar Fires is the second release of the band Hidden in the Fog and the three tracks offer a neat combination of black metal with a good amount of symphonic elements. Two facets how this may sound are offered on two of the three songs; the last one of the EP is an outro and with merely one minute in length it can be neglected when it comes to discussing the music. On In Clairvoyant Prophanity the keyboards are rather used in interludes between the different segments of the song, whereas on the title track Of Hidden Chronicles & Stellar Fires a clearly recognizable keyboard structure exists, which takes away some of the aggressiveness the music generally consists of, while adding some amount of dynamic and catchiness.

Indeed, this is a well crafted piece of black metal and also the production had a positive influence on how the art is presented to the listener. Also a bass is recognizable, even though bass-drum and bass-guitar do not have such an amount of power that someone could feel it. Their presence cannot be doubted, but the effect on the music appears only on a small scale. Guitars and vocals on the first track, as well as the combination of vocals and keyboards with guitars in the background on the second one are the dominating factors in the songs. The snare drum as well as the cymbals should not be forgotten, yet their impact on the songs appears on a smaller level than the aforementioned aspects.

With lengths of nine to ten minutes, the two major compositions offer enough room for variation and ideas. As already mentioned in the title of the review it is necessary to use the term progressive when it comes to describe the music of the band as the way the songs had been written and how the motives were used, fall under that category. First of all is there no chorus - rhyme scheme and the songs are rather linear in their approach; which works, in contrast to the performance of a lot of other bands, quite well, due to the quality of the riffs and ideas. Switches in tempi appear on a large scale and accordingly is the degree of repetition minuscule; i.e. not beyond what can be expected. Hidden in the Fog deals with this in a neat way: the songs are basically a carpet of ideas and motives, some are good and some are slightly plain, yet the band is able to distort the impression of the listener by switching to and fro in terms of the tempo. Hence it is possible to make the listener appreciate the dynamic in the music, despite some gaps in the atmosphere and in the quality of some ideas. Especially In Clairvoyant Prophanity is quite a fascinating trip.

Final bits and bytes
This is a really good EP and it is nothing bit highly recommended. In terms of song-writing, atmosphere, production etc. pp. little is left to be desired and over the years, I bought it when it came out, it had never reached a state in which I became bored or disinterested by it. Those two compositions offers music on a level the majority of black metal bands find challenging to reach. Complex structures with a good deal of catchiness and cool motives appear over the length of each track. Well performed different vocals styles, which range from clean sung part to croaking. So, to those who want to have some impression beyond the general state of the art in terms of symphonic black metal, this release can be recommended whole-heartily.

Recommended: In Clairvoyant Prophanity