大員合戰 / 1661 - 1662 The Siege of Fort Zeelandia

Offering a take on black metal that echoes Southern European styles in its manipulation of epic heavy metal melodies and working in elements of folk instrumentation and sweeping symphonics, Xiamen’s Holyarrow sure pack a punch on this brief EP. The release of ‘大員合戰 / 1661 – 1662 The Siege of Fort Zeelandia’ has been timed to coincide with the 360th anniversary of the passing of Koxinga, Prince of Prince of Yanping, who led troops on a landing at Lakjemuyse, leading to the titular Siege of Fort Zeelandia, where they prevailed over Dutch colonists and thus ended the Dutch East India Company’s rule over Taiwan.

Given the specificity of this conceptual material one could be forgiven for thinking that Holyarrow have hamstrung themselves in the somewhat overloaded theme. But an epic voyage across the waves to oust foreign invaders proves to be an ideal setting to insert this brand of bouncy, epic, melodic black metal, replete with characterful and heroic riffs and intricate folk melodies. Even on this brief EP Holyarrow are able to pack a dense array of musicality that would give their opposite numbers in Scandinavia a run for their money, all without coming across as cluttered or unfocused.

The mix is crisp and clear, with a tinny snare sound doing nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of the performance. Guitars embody a nice balance between good old abrasion and a sharp edge ideally suited to articulating layered and intricate melodic inflections. Vocals are an aggressive bark of barbaric revelry, simultaneously at home in the historical context of the lyrical subject matter yet also convincing as a dispassionate narrator of events.

Choral chants crop up frequently to lend the music a sense of historical gravitas, immediately calling to mind Homeric epics of antiquity. The backbone of these tracks consists of a central melodic through-line carried forward by rhythm guitar from which other elements bounce off and enhance as the piece progresses. Vocals will follow their rhythmic dictates, with the clean chants occasionally wresting the narrative from the guitars and raising the key and pitch of the music to a state of near euphoria. This backbone also provides the drums with a clear blueprint from which to build a rhythmic philosophy. Subtle keyboard layers work to enhance the central motifs, whilst guitar leads and random solos jump out to heighten the intensity and stakes of the narrative.

It should be noted that all this is packed into an EP just over ten minutes in length. For this reason it feels much longer, but in a good way, as if one cannot quite comprehend how much music has gone into such a short space of time. Truly a work of efficient and clever arrangement as much as it is of raw musical talent.

Originally published at Hate Meditations