Formed in 1991, Danish Denial Of God still playing Black Metal with distinct weird, dark atmosphere, calling it “Black Horror Metal”. After seven years of absence, the band released a new EP The Shapeless Mass in June 2019, which was some kind of trailer for the new, third longplay The Hallow Mass.
There are still three musicians in a band. The permanent core is brothers Ustumallagam (vocals) and Azter (guitars). Drummer Galheim is also familiar to the fans as he worked on two previous albums.
The first thing that surprise in this album is the amount of songs against its length: seven tracks from The Hallow Mass last a little more than hour, including short atmospheric interlude “A Thousand Funerals”. So, what we got here is six epic and very long tracks from nine to 14 minutes each. Actually, the longest one, “Hallowmas” opens an album with the sounds of thunder, rain and tragic keyboards.
After some time they change with guitars and drums, which attack listener with Black Metal tremolos, blast beats and growl Ustumallagam’s vocals. By the way, his vocals have an interesting aspect: these are really extreme vocals but with this you can distinguish every word. Considering an oldschool Black Metal sound in an album, it seems that the band did their work great!
With this, “Hallowmas” is a quite melodic and diverse track. The main motive and tempo change a couple of times during the song and they remind more some Iron Maiden and Venom mix, saving gloomy atmosphere with dismal mood.
“The Lake In The Woods” with “The Transylvanian Dream” are very atmospheric tracks too. “The Lake In The Woods” is an epic piece, which easily describe an inimical forest with some bedevilment in it. It could be easily a soundtrack to some grim and really scary movie. The ending song “The Transylvanian Dream” is more folky, yet still there is a place for macabre here.
The shortest and probably the fastest track is “Hour Of The Worm”. Only fury, solid and speed here with great techniques. Bass solo and Galheim’s drums are brilliant.
Anyway, take an hour of your priceless time and just let this album absorb you. It will.
The Hallow Mass was released on October, 25 via Osmose Productions and Hells Headbangers.
If you really would like to support Antichrist, you can just Share our article.
You can also support Antichrist by sending a couple bucks to cover some webhosting expenses. =>> PayPal
