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Hecate Enthroned > The Slaughter of Innocence, a Requiem for the Mighty > Reviews
Hecate Enthroned - The Slaughter of Innocence, a Requiem for the Mighty

Not as Impressive as People Say... - 65%

EvilAllen, June 8th, 2019

This band, Hecate Enthroned, are from England. And perform melodic black and death metal. But this record is practically on the black metal side, easily. But enough of that. This isn't anything too impressive. If anything, its construction is underneath itself. And what I mean by that is, I could have been formed a lot better than it was. But hey, we can't have everything that we want, can we? I'd like to be skinnier than I am. But I'm fat. I can accept that. And I can also accept the fact that I'm not trying hard enough to become skinnier, so...think about that one, folks.

This album features a typical '90's production, which happens to be muddier-than-all-fuck. But who's complaining? Oh right...me, that's who. This might as well have been demo. It was designed to be that way, it sounds. The production is so muggy that it sounds like all the musical stems are forcefully fused into each other, uncomfortably. It's almost like a fucking cross-fade effect that it applies to itself. Though, it's not too noticeable. But noticeable enough, to say the least.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... High-pitched fry screaming...ring a bell? I use a certain name often enough where this time I shouldn't have, to who this resembles. So, this particular vocalist has a lot of natural vocalist distortion in his voice, along with some fine-ass pitch. Probably pushing five octaves in range. Though, you can't hear a single word he's saying while in this range. And the screams are held too long, too often. It's a little annoying, but whatever. No-one is perfect. Not even me. And I try to be a fair dude.

The guitars are stale, just like a loaf of bread. It tries to show off thrash metal elements, but it fails horribly. I can almost admit that I really do hate the guitars and the melodies behind them. They're not that good. I feel they're being applied, as if a "try-hard" were playing guitar for a short period of time. Sure, the higher-toned pitches are nice...but eh...it falls from grace. The bass is heavily-lacked here, too. Can't hear any force because it's all hidden underneath everything else. The clean guitars are alright though...

The drumming is also considerably boring, too. I think I strongly dislike the performance as much as I do the guitars. Really disgusting and bland, actually. It's like beating a dead doctor to death multiple times, hoping to get a reaction from him, but you won't, simply because he's dead as fuck. The keyboards and choir-like features of the keyboards, are pretty nice. It literally creates this highly. in-depth atmosphere that sounds like a winter-based album. But when the sun is going down, and the sky is cloudy, and the sky is dark blue for an hour before it goes black, as it snows. That's what the keyboards remind me of...that includes the artwork as well. It really gives you the visual aspects of what the band was trying to do. But sadly, the performance, generally...didn't work for me... And well, just fucking accept it and deal with it.

Why I Hate Cradle But Love Hecate - 83%

OzzyApu, September 17th, 2009

For one, these guys are way, way less cheesy. Sure, their music video for “An Ode For A Haunted Wood” may be gimmicky, but the music is anything but laughable. Personally, I feel like this album really stepped it up against the Scandinavian wave of releases that pretty much dominated the genre. The music here undoubtedly resembles Cradle Of Filth, but where Cradle bored / annoyed me, Hecate Enthroned only captured my imagination. The riffs tear shit up while the keys added a more sinister atmosphere to the already ancient sounding music.

There are many specific moments on this album that serve as an tempting aroma, luring the listener in with its beautiful smell and delusion of dreamlike colors (the cover art fantastically portrays this sight). The break in “Beneath A December Twilight” and the intro to “The Spell Of The Winter Forest” are two prime examples, basking the listener in musical ecstasy without harming them – drawing them into a world between worlds where humans are unperceptive to the truth (don’t even mention the fucking Matrix). While very dark and mystical, there always shines a ray of hope (this is melodic black metal, after all). I get this positive feeling invigorating in me whenever I hear this, giving me a personal connection towards the music that I just don’t believe exists with Cradle’s music. The guitars with their clean bobs and ballistic riffs bring out the dark attitude of the music, but the keys / synths prove that the nature of the album betters society.

Drumming is also insanely hectic; very beastly double bass and all sorts of rhythms to lead the epic charge into battle. They’re bombastic, subtle, and conceived with catchy hooks and patterns that I wasn’t even expecting. They’re a bit clearer than the other instruments, especially the vocals. On that remark, Jon himself provides two different styles (three if you want to count the talking lines): screaming and growling. His screams are very high, drowned, and banshee-like. They’re the more prominent style, but his growls are way better to my ears; they’re very demonic roars / growls, but more muffled. He switches between them regularly, but it’s really the screams that make up the forefront of the style.

Atmosphere wise, Hecate got their shit together. While Filth and his crew failed to deliver a gothic treat, Hecate managed to do a gothic, ominous, and melancholic opus to blast the lid off of English black metal right in the Norwegian’s faces. The guitars twist in despicable tremolos while the drumming blasts like cannons, with steady bass support a bit buried but still able to pull off the job minimally. The feeling is magical while still being chaotic and beautiful; its melodic black metal produced much in the same way as Norwegian black metal at the time (but gothic influenced), with more of an emphasis on keys like (but more focused than) Emperor. The whole thing is one grand, classical overture of diabolic power grasping the freedom from under your feet. Believe me, it sounds so good that you won’t be resisting.