No Birth nor End

This album was amazing back to back from this band. Even this band is from Greece their sound is totally influenced from the Norwegian sound of the second wave. "No birth nor end" is an album that has 90s feeling but has all these elements that make this album fresh and "modern". They do not copy the bands of the 90s. They achieved to have their sound and it seems that they have choose to pave their own path. For those who haven't heard them before, HOR is a two-men band. In this album THRONE played the drums and you can listen the difference with their first album drumming which was more complicated-now it's simpler but no difference in my taste. In the first album Dimon's Night was the drummer but in this album, THRONE fills the position as they seem to choose to do anything on their own.

The songs in this album are six and it seems that they have the same attitude and feeling with the first album, but they are more aggresive and faster. There are songs in the first album like "Exitium" or "The Misanthrope" that they could easily fit in this album and this proves my claim that they know what they are doing, they have a certain music path that they follow and has a great results until now. "Worship our death", "Will to immortality", "Sibylla" and "Dominion" are the highlights of the album in my opinion. All the album is great but these songs was amazing with the first listening of the album. "Will to immortality" is propably the most special and unique song in their catalogue. I mean that they haven't any other song like this and it seems that they experiment carefully and wisely with success so far.

The production and the artwork is another plus in this album. The production was done in Athens in Dimon's Studios as in the first album and the results justified their choice. Old school production with elements that you can feel that the album is new and it definitely separates them from the majority of the black metal bands of Greece. The artwork is also much better that the artwork of their first album that didn't fit quite well with their music I think. In this album when you see the artwork you know exactly what you're gonna listen and this is not easy for any band.

Overall, "No birth nor end" is on my top5 best albums that I have listen in 2021 so far and it shows that this band has potential to be one of the pioneer bands of the scene the following years. The atmosphere is gloomy, grim and cold, the riifs are insanely intelligent, it's an album that you can call "true black metal album" and from the very first minute you can feel that the hell is unleashed.