A seething, vicious darkness cloaks this song “Hate Revelations” like a poisonous miasma, while the music also spawns imaginings of a brooding, malignant presence looming over you, as if a spectral giant has risen from the bowels of the earth to cast its long shadow once again. But while the atmospheric elements of the song send the imagination spiraling into a dark and demented descent, it’s also massively head-moving, and powerfully addictive.
“Hate Revelations” is the work of a Finnish trio who have taken the name Nephilim’s Howl, and whose music could be characterized as a heavy hybrid of black metal and doom (though in truth, it’s not easy to pick a genre label). It comes from their debut album Through The Marrow Of Human Suffering, which the always interesting I, Voidhanger Records will be releasing on May 19th.
The band’s guitarist VJR (who also performs bass and synth) explains:
“Lyrically, Through The Marrow Of Human Suffering is about existential contemplation, manifested with intense imagery and a vivid language. It focuses on individual’s place among the ages, the sensation of withering away like the glory of times past, but also thriving on the strength to be found from all of it in reflection to our history, piercing through what keeps us from our potential.
“The name of the band was chosen to reflect the trinity of beasts, men and gods, notably the founding themes present in mythological tales throughout the ancient past, as well as among the written expressions of NEPHILIM’s HOWL.”
As I’ve already mentioned, “Hate Revelations” does indeed conjure intense imagery, most of it unsettling. The music’s atmosphere is perilous, the result in part of abrasive, distorted chords, guitar leads that slither in and out like gleaming serpents or swirl like vampiric wraiths, and the heavy, lumbering gait with which the band open and close this long track.
Yet those ingredients are only part of the story, because the vocals are a dominating and truly hair-raising force throughout. The first expression you’ll hear is a cackling laugh, and that’s the least unnerving sound you’ll hear from this throat. Rather than shrieks, Reavhan turns himself inside-out with wild cries and serrated-edge yells, straddling a line between agony and deranged fury.
Halfway through the song, AEK‘s always compelling drum rhythm changes to a rattling gallop, the tone of the riff seems to become lighter, and the vocals briefly soar almost cleanly, but this turns out to be a prelude to an explosion of ferocity, a torrent of blazing blast-beats and frenzied, fiery riffing. But don’t worry, you’ll have one final chance to lock your head into the heavy, irresistible pulse of that doomy rhythm that launched this captivating track.
The album’s arresting cover photograph is by Maija Lahtinen. For pre-order information, watch these spaces:
https://i-voidhanger.com/shop/
https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com
Track List:
1. Void Reflections I – Remembrance (4:32)
2. Of Ordeals And Triumph (07:21)
3. Hate Revelations (10:00)
4. Against The Worlds That Bind Us (6:32)
5. Through The Marrow Of Human Suffering I, II & III (12:14)
Total time 40:39
Nephilim’s Howl on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/nephilimshowl/