Written by Jeffery Murderwood
Hekseblad – The Fall Of Cintra
Black Metal from America
Releasing October 31st, 2021
9/10
Okay these guys are new to the black metal scene. The Fall Of Cintra is Hekseblad‘s first release. The band is a two piece, consisting of Bruxa and Frosk, these two get black metal! I Listened to the 4 tracks from the fall of Cintra recently and they are dope! I will get into some specifics here soon. I wanted to take a minute and talk about the cool ass theme Hekseblad has chosen, The Witcher!!! Fans of the black metal scene will know about the countless references to Lord Of The Rings in the music. So it’s cool to see a different fantasy series represented in the scene. The Fall of Cintra comes out Halloween day (Oct,31,2021) and I have already pre ordered it. Don’t sleep on this album!
So lets talk about the music, The fall of Cintra consists of 4 tracks, 1.) “An Ill-Fated Meeting” 2.) “Night Of The Long Fangs” (which was released earlier this year as a single) 3.) “Obsidian Star” 4.) “The fall of Cintra”. All of these tracks are pure raw black metal. Bruxa’s vocals pair exceedingly well with Frosk’s arrangements. Throughout the album there are touches of DSBM with short introspective soft guitars, followed by the “standard fare” of black metal, however this isn’t your standard black metal, it stands out with its different theme, and works on familiar ground as most black metal. I think for a debut album this is genuinely amazing. Also let’s face it a lot of black metal fans are fuckin nerds at heart so the Witcher elements are awesome for black metal nerds such as myself.
The production on this album is excellent for raw black metal, the guitars are what I want to call legible where they need to be. For example, in the title song there’s a cool hook played on the guitar that could easily have been wiped out in production. Like I said above, there are also excellent slower passages that work perfectly to build atmosphere. Hekseblad has done it’s homework and produced excellent black metal, Bruxa’s vocals match that atmosphere created by Frosk’s arrangements and helps push it to a level that just works!
The first track starts with some interesting sounds, and pulls you in with its grand feel. Then the trashing begins! At about the middle of the song you can hear those DSBM elements I was talking about earlier, which by the way is executed expertly. The song is solid!
The second track night of the long fangs has been playing on repeat on my phone/vehicle since it came out! It was an excellent choice to pick as the single from this album! Bruxa and Frosk have cultivated an awesome sound and I think what Hekseblad is about is on full display in these 4 tracks. Night of the long fangs is a taste of an awesome album, if you picked it up and enjoyed it, I doubt you will be let down by the other tracks.
“Obsidian Star” is my favorite track off this debut. You’ve got all you could want in that track, beautiful guitar pieces with an intense cacophony of hard as fuck vocals over the faster parts, well balanced beside the lower almost spoken word bits of singing, and slower beautifully haunting music.
And the final track! This one is great, “The Fall Of Cintra” encapsulates the feel of its subject matter well. I couldn’t remember the lore around the fall of Cintra in the Witcher series so I googled it and yes. Yes indeed this song reflects it’s inspiration quite well.
This is your notice! The scroll posted on the message board of the underground, Hekseblad is excellent black metal, definitely worth your time!
I give this album a 9/10
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