OK, so when was the last time that you heard an album that used Abigor’s distinctly unusual ‘Satanized – A Journey Through the Cosmos’ record as a template? ‘Not recently’ I suspect is the answer, yet Sweden’s Hyperborean seem to have taken more than a few leaves out of this book, rendering their hymns to warfare and conflict in a whirlwind of ultra-dry and clinical black metal. In spite of the martial rhetoric and rather crude demonic artwork (leading one to anticipate a barbaric Black Witchery or Revenge influenced blast-fest), this lengthy seven song affair is light years away from the blood-drenched chaotic ‘war metal’ fury that I was anticipating.
The production is super-clean, the playing note-perfect and the whole album is… well, all rather sterile I’m afraid. Frankly, it’s WAY too polished and the dry, clicky sound robs it of any atmosphere from the get-go. Opener ‘Channelling the Spirit of Warfare’ should race from the blocks in a welter of jagged riffing and off-kilter tech flourishes but the parched sound strips any power from the assault. Things pick up a little when the band kick into ‘Weapon Mankind’ and some mid-period Dimmu Borgir-styled synths fill out the sound but it’s still rather anaemic. Hyperborean’s adherence to a neo-classical approach is heavily reminiscent of late 90s releases by Covenant and Arcturus which lends the material a faintly nostalgic appeal. This, blended with their technical note-heavy approach, should render the material captivating to some degree but there is a lack of depth to much of the riffing which in the main, leaves the album wanting. Even the 9 minute plus centrepiece ‘The Last Stand of Leonidas and the Battle of Thermpylae’ which Hyperborean clearly feel is there epic masterpiece, there’s something inherently dissatisfying about the experience.
Ultimately, it’s rather difficult to get excited about ‘The Spirit of Warfare’. It’s deftly played and as an exercise in precision, cannot be faulted. Sadly, passion, vigour, unpredictability, atmosphere – you know, all of those qualities that make extreme metal at its best so compelling – are distinctly lacking here.
http://www.myspace.com/hyperboreanofficial
Frank Allain
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