Released by the increasingly essential Les Acteurs De L’Ombre Productions (LADLO), ‘Serpentine’ is the debut album from Hyrgal, a project from Clement Flandrois (Svart Crown). Packaged in a beautifully designed digi-book (LADLO never skimp when it comes to packaging their bands), ‘Serpentine’ is a dark, sinister body of work that takes in seven tracks in just under forty atmospheric minutes.
Opening with the funereal ‘L’Appel’, a subtle, cinematic piece of music that ably sets the scene, ‘Serpentine’ truly arrives with the icy barrage of ‘mouroir’, a track that recalls the grandiosity of Emperor and the earthen elegance of blut aus nord. Despite the raging torrents that scar the surface of the track, dig deeper and you’ll find uneasy ambience and even a sense of beauty hidden within its depths and Clement, alongside drummer Emmanuel Zuccaro and bassist Quentin Aberne, draws the whole thing together with deft skill. The music flows into the creeping horror of ‘Till’, a track riven with blast beats and coruscating vocals, the latter gaining a greater sense of mystery and poetry for being sung in the band’s native French. Another track benefitting from an ambitious arrangement, the initial sonic scree gives way to an unexpectedly potent groove as it progresses, Quentin’s bass helping to anchor the ferocious percussive assault laid down by Emmanuel. The band allow themselves a moment of total abandon as they unleash the unhinged ‘Represailles’, a track so awash in harmonic texture that you find yourself drifting into the ether, hypnotised by the relentless, yet curiously melodic, piece of music in which the band are engaged.
Emerging from a subtle guitar figure, it does not take long for ‘Aux diktats de l’instinct’ to build up to full power, Emmanuel taking every opportunity to combine precision and power as he works his way around the kit. Another piece of music that devolves into a taut groove, ‘Aux Diktats…’ is an album highlight thanks to a deftly incorporated melody that lies at the heart of the rampaging guitars and the arrangement allows for considerable variation in tone and tempo, leading to the doom-laden instrumental, ‘rite’. Short and laden with portent, it allows the band to flex their musical muscles as it segues into the doom-laden ‘Etrusca Disciplina’, a track that takes a considerable time to build towards the vocals, the music evoking a sense of grandeur and decay with its leaden pace and weighty riffs. An epic finale, the band allow more time and space to explore their theme, the track unfolding over eight, savage minutes as layer after layer of guitar is built up into a gloriously ravaged and beautiful denouement that will leave you lost in a reverie long after it has finished. A mature, innovative conclusion to an album that takes great delight in confounding expectations, ‘Etrusca Disciplina’ is an absolute masterpiece.
It has been mentioned before on these pages that the LADLO is an absolute stamp of quality. At a time when the platforms through which music is disseminated are so diffuse, it is of increasing import that trustworthy labels retain their passion and integrity. LADLO continue to amaze and surprise with the bands that they unearth and Hyrgal is no exception. Black metal is at its best when transmuted into an unworldly otherness and ‘Serpentine’ achieves this feat, offering up seven tracks that explore the sonic possibilities of the genre rather than simply re-treading old ground. Mysterious, even beautiful at times, ‘Serpentine’ represents the myriad possibilities that black metal offers and is a powerful debut album from a band with a strong future ahead. 8
