Redimus

Hecate Enthroned is one of those bands that's looked down upon because they're remotely related to cradle of filth, and although their first album did have some cradle elements, that has not stopped them from being a good band. They have done well in creating black metal with a bit of a symphonic element, but not necessarily symphonic black metal. Their other albums had a few good songs and ended up being just ok because there were bad songs to go along with the good. They're getting better and on this album the good outweighs the bad by a whole lot. Songs 1-3 are rather uninterresting but the rest of the album kicks ass.

The thing that really stands out about this album is the atmosphere created. The keyboards and the guitars are what generate the ominous darkness that surrounds this album. The keys are quite prominent but never overbearing or cheesy, they're used similar to the ones used in Dimmu Borgir's Stormblast(the way they were used, not the way they sound). Theres not much to say about the guitars besides they're there and the riffs are very well written, with the occasional acoustic guitar parts these that help with the overall sound. The drums are done very well also, always varying from slow to fast. The vocals are similar to akercocke's vocals going from a higher pitched black metal growl down to a lower death metal growl. Theres also sort of clean vocals which are usually somewhat speaking parts, these go almost the complete way through the song redimus. The music itself is slow to mid paced (not to be confused with the drums, which are usually quite fast).

The overall sound of this album is rather unique, and quite hard to describe. This is not necessarily atmospheric black metal but it's close. There are no specific songs I reccommend but starting at song 4 the rest of the album is brilliant. This album is defilitely worth buying (or downloading if my review has told you nothing), it is amongst my favorite albums of 2004.

Check it out.