While half the world is preparing for sleet and snow, the weather is getting warmer here in New Zealand. Normally, I find black metal ill-fitting when it’s too warm for jeans and my shoulders are aching from a recent sunburn, but this close to Christmas I also miss Europe the most, having spent my childhood in Germany. I wanted an album that would put a chill in my bones and make me think of snow even with the summer air streaming into my house. Pestilent Hex’s Sorceries of Sanguine & Shadow was the perfect fit.
The album begins with a sweet acoustic piano intro reminiscent of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. Reverb-drenched and crystalline, it nonetheless creates an atmosphere heavy with impending doom. Normally I’m not one for intro tracks, especially ones like this, as I find them quite cheesy – but this one sets the scene for the rest of the album surprisingly well. It’s dark and mystical, beautiful, but with a threatening aura. “Nocturne” swells into the album’s first full-length track, “Sciomancy and Sortilege”, with surprising ease.
This song does not fuck around – it’s full-tit black metal from the word go. What I enjoy about Pestilent Hex’s sound is their ability to blend ferocious blackened death metal with pagan elements (arching melodies, surprising chord changes, and the inclusion of stings and piano) without it ever being overbearing or kitschy. They strike this amazing balance between brutality and beauty, earthiness and aethereal mystique, in a way that is rare and precious. I normally prefer my black metal raw and unadulterated, and I’m always wary when keyboards are involved, but this is honestly fantastic. The whole vibe of “Sciomancy and Sortilege” is a little witchy, conjuring up images of sweeping forested hills, fog, a little hut in the woods which is dimly lit from within and has smoke curling out of its chimney. Crow’s feet, yew berries, rabbit bones – these seem somehow to be woven into the song’s fabric.
Each song on Sorceries is a journey – winding and twisting this way and that, every second another step down a shadowy path. Sometimes what lies ahead seems clear, and sometimes an unexpected turn reveals something new and unanticipated. One of my favourite tracks on the album is “Of Hexcraft and Laws Three-fold”, a shuddering and grim construction of stacked guitar chords, hefty double-kicks, thundering bass, layered vocals, and oh-so-many subtle background happenings. There’s hardly a moment in this song that isn’t ornamented by an almost inaudible synth, a chilling guitar line, or other understated ear-candy. Its halfway point is marked by a brief acoustic guitar break, before the song kicks back into full-fledged aggression. Pestilent Hex seem to get ever more desperate, trem-picking with tireless abandon, pushing out section after section, grinding away ever fiercer until the song folds in on itself.
By contrast, “A Spectral Voyage” is doomy as all hell. Plodding, immense, and hefty, the song brews steadily, until it reaches a boiling point. Flavoured in the style of early Opeth, with smatterings of Krallice, it builds almost imperceptibly from its sludgy beginnings into a demonic black metal opus. Again, we are graced with an abundance of subtle layers, which often only become apparent upon closer listening. Most songs on Sorceries have a section where the sun seems to break the clouds, a sweet little major-key section, or a chorus that feels a little lighter, but on “A Spectral Voyage”, even this is missing. There are moments when the gloom seems to lift a little bit, perhaps through a warming chord change or a shimmering synth layer, but these moments are always interrupted by a sour guitar line or a demonic shriek. The song just doesn’t follow the same sort of formula as the others on the album, and I enjoy that very much.
What I particularly like about Sorceries is its ability to be so consistent and cohesive without sacrificing each individual song’s personality. The album as a whole flows incredibly well and is captivating in its overarching atmosphere; all the songs match sonically, too, so one is never taken out of the moment. And yet, every song is very much unique, with its own style and flavour. Some are doomy, some are fierce, some are wild; some are pure black metal, others let in moments of other subgenres – death metal, sludge, pagan metal, even slight symphonic elements. Pestilent Hex make clever use of chord colours, ensuring that nothing is ever predictable or stale. The album’s closing song, the 10-minute “Sanguine Gnosis”, is a masterclass in the unexpected, while never becoming jarring or breaking character. The attention to detail on this track, as on all others, is delightful. Despite how long and technical this song is, it never sacrifices it emotion.
Sorceries of Sanguine & Shadow surprised me. The more I listened to it, the more I heard, and the more I appreciated it. You may not love it immediately; you may not even understand it immediately. But give it time, this is not an album to be listened to in a rush. Take it slow and let it sink in. It’ll be worth it.
