Haereticalia - The Night Battles

Formed in 2004, long running Czech pagan metal band Panychida show no signs of slowing down. The band may have started out mired among the ranks of the pagan metal minions, with an enjoyable yet generic sound in their early years, it wasn't until 2013's Grief for an Idol that the band really began to make a name for themselves. Panychida managed to retain the triumphant pacing of their early pagan metal while diversifying their approach and incorporating more melody and folk instrumentation; something that worked exceedingly well for the band. Haereticalia – The Night Battles, the band's fourth full length album and a worthy successor to Grief for an Idol, is an album that pushes Panychida further with an even more diverse and engaging album.

Haereticalia – The Night Battles, released May 2016 through Cursed Records, features nine new tracks, with two bonus live cuts, across forty-five minutes. The production is solid, allowing the guitars a warm yet still destructive tone, while still allowing the swaths of keyboards and the rhythm section to shine brightly. It allows the diverse album to play through smoothly, without jerky transitions when the instrument in focus changes. Much like Grief for an Idol saw the band going for a more refined sound, Haereticalia – The Night Battles continues the band's ascent away from a more generic pagan metal sound into something they can call their own.

Chunky, rollicking riffs and floating, melodic licks lead the charge as thick, epic charged keyboards paint a backdrop. The keyboards almost sound like a film score to some type of fantasy movie where the cast is making some type of heroic trek across a mountain pass. While the keys aren't entirely omnipresent throughout the album, they are such a strong force in the band's sound that things almost sound barren when their aren't there. The band charges through moments of melodic black metal, doom and folk metal, never losing sight of that pagan metal played to the tune of epic keyboard backing.

Panychida's fourth album is a big step for the band and one that should see the band appealing to a wider audience. It's still a heavy offering, and one that fans of blackened metal can still enjoy, yet there is a lot of melody at play and top notch songwriting throughout. While I was pleasantly surprised with the progress the band had made on Grief for an Idol, this album brings them another level entirely. Haereticalia – The Night Battles is an album to listen to from start to finish, as the different moods, tempos, and lyrics tell a fantastically dark story.