Hegeroth - Perfidia

Hegeroth are a Polish melodic black metal band and “Perfidia” is their third full length album. Just released a year after their previous one it doesn’t stray too far from their usual formula they’ve presented so far. Relying on rather melodic riffs that are well balanced with the bass and drums along with shrieking vocals and atmospheric interludes here and there, they’ve got a good mix of black metal to show an evil sound that isn’t over dramatized by an abundance of keyboards or symphonic elements. It is very similar to God Dethroned or Naglfar with their veiled pokes at religion and the vocal approach along with some of the guitar structure, so those who enjoy those bands will severely enjoy Hegeroth.

Tracks like ‘Hand By Hand’ and ‘The Wind Embraces Me’ are a bit of the speedier side of melodic black metal but also have their atmospheric parts such as the chiming bells or almost evil carnival sounding strings, so that mixes things up a bit. The mix of guitars, bass, and drums all go well together without one overshadowing the other, and the vocals has that right level of rasp that isn’t too high pitched like Cradle of Filth or too digitized like Dimmu Borgir, so they sound pretty organic and not forced. Others like ‘Last Salvation’ forsake the atmospheric elements but take a heavy focus on the guitar melodies and adding in a lot more groove, slowing things down slightly for some excellent head bang moments. ‘Sacrificed’ is probably the best example of this being one of the fastest tracks on the album at first and then slowing down a bit for some great riffs that sound evil as hell and yet extremely catchy at the same time.

The only downside to the album is that Hegeroth tend to have each tracking sounding the same after a while. The earlier tracks had the atmospheric bits mixed with the solos or at the end to break things up but by ‘Sacrificed’ the last few tracks kind of tend to blend together. Still, ‘How Sore Can Be The Fall’ has some awesome groove to it amongst the shrieks so one shouldn’t just skip over the last few completely. Just don’t expect the 2nd half of the album to be as thrilling as the first. That being said, the music here is still strong and any fan of melodic black metal in general that is guitar focused will really find it impressive and not over saturated. Definitely a raw yet beautiful take on the genre.

3.5 / 5 STARS 

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1. Hand By Hand
2. Distorted Visions Of The Saints
3. The Wind Embraces Me
4. Raise Your Voice
5. Sacrificed
6. Last Salvation
7. How Sore Can Be The Fall
8. An Angel Won’t Come


Self released
Reviewer: Colin McNamara
Mar 9, 2021
Next review: Buried - Oculus Rot

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