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Pagan Hellfire > In Desolation, in Ruins > Reviews
Pagan Hellfire - In Desolation, in Ruins

Welcome To The Mass. - 80%

Perplexed_Sjel, November 28th, 2008

Pagan Hellfire have been prolific over recent years, having released three full-length records in the space of three years, and four overall in the space of eight years. Incarnatus is the enigma behind this mystical black metal band who’s influences lie firmly within the second wave and who’s music continues to showcase the ability of being able to recreate the old school themes in the modern day era. Canadian black metal is strong and I’d like to consider Pagan Hellfire a strong band themselves. Considering this is a one man outfit and Incarnatus manages to fill in all the roles himself, this band are pushing to enter the top 10 black metal acts from the country. I wouldn’t consider Pagan Hellfire to be the quintessential act of the scene within Canada, but Incarnatus’ creation is sweeping aside the competition with his fairly simplistic approach of beastly melodies and contrasted aggression. ‘In Desolation, In Ruins’ is the aptly entitled second full-length from the Nova Scotia act who’re signed to the Tour de Garde record label. I expect that this record won’t receive much attention due to the fact that Pagan Hellfire have recently recorded and released their fourth opus, ‘Solidarity’, but it deserves feedback due to its essential bearing on the opinion of this bands material on the whole. In terms of surpassing the previous record, it doesn’t, but it is as good as it, which indicates consistency and strength in musicianship and song writing, which actually affords some catchy structures no less on ‘Leading To Downfall’ with its quirky bass and the title track, which is immense.

Pagan Hellfire have received some attention due to the fact that they resemble Burzum’s earliest material, the harsher and less ambient material, and they even contributed to a tribute record for Burzum. To say that this is just another clone act would be unfair because although there might be some resemblance to the legendary Norwegian band, Pagan Hellfire are very much their own band with their own sound. ‘In Desolation, In Ruins’ confirms this fact. There are numerous reoccurring words one comes across when reading the descriptions of second wave material, adjectives like, relentless, repetitious, monotonous, chaotic, anarchic and so on and so forth. All descriptions used for the second wave bands can be applied in this instance too. For example, the distortion from the guitars creates a chaotic sound barrier which cannot be breached by joyful emotion, or any form of positive feeling for that matter. The guitars are relentless forming tremolo structure after tremolo structure on top of the bass which supports it, but in essence, carriers over little emotion to help really distinguish the sound from lacking in emotiveness. Having said that, there are a few songs where the bass does distinguish itself from the action packed distortion, songs like ‘Leading To Downfall’, which epitomises the use of bass in the majority of black metal bands. I’m not aware of the lyrics, so I cannot comment on them, but I imagine the content is somewhat stereotypical of black metal.

By that I mean the lyrics follow the sound, or does the sound follow the lyrics? Either way, I’d imagine that Pagan Hellfire would establish a grim outlook on life, reality or even possibly fantasy realms with their whimsical style that draws out an aura of anarchism due to the impacting style. The songs are fast and generally don’t afford much emotion to the soundscapes, which don’t tend to vary all that often. The vocal style seems to depict desolation and pain, much like a lot of black metal vocalists. This style, unlike other bands’ vocals, is clichéd, but does sustain the overall sound of the instrumentation, which is quick, quirky and quintessential to the mixture. The vocals work side by side with the guitars and perhaps overly repetitious percussion which relies heavily on cymbal and double bass work to create a formulated sound, but one that offers a certain charm to proceedings. Listening to Pagan Hellfire is like attending a black mass in your mind. A priest drunk on the blood of Satan (read: red wine) chanting Pagan ritualistic songs, whilst hot gothic nuns in their mid-20’ move around the altar like the wind rustling the trees (read: cage dancing) and an audience of impressed onlookers (read: people who accidentally stumbled across the massacre). It makes for an interesting change in terms of imagery, yet its a formulated style of black metal and nothing we haven‘t heard before. The odd charm that comes with listening to Pagan Hellfire is what tempts the listener to come back time and again to witness the onslaught. Highlight: ‘In Desolation, In Ruins’, catchy as fuck and makes me want to groove to those tantalising tremolo riffs.