AN NCS PREMIERE: HEXEKRATION RITES — “ASCENSION”

 

In September of last year Atavism Records released the debut demo of Hexekration Rites, and we premiered one of the two tracks, a song that brought forth feelings of lust (rather than love) in my heart (loins?) because, as I wrote then, “the appeal of the music is definitely more carnal than romantic, more rooted in atavistic impulses and more likely to trigger primal reflexes — and as the song’s name suggests, ‘Chaos Absolution’ is wild, channeling a feeling of frenzied liberation and savage ecstasy”.

I concluded that premiere by disclosing that this formidable French black/death duo didn’t intend to stop, and that more Hexekration Rites creations would be forthcoming. And now another one looms on the near horizon.

On November 22nd the same Atavism Records will release the first EP of Hexekration Rites. Fittingly named Desekration Manifesto, it includes five transfixing assaults on the senses, and once again we have the twisted pleasure of presenting one of them, a track called “Ascension“.

 

 

Through that 2018 demo Hexekration Rites have already proven a mature ability to harness the skull-plundering heaviness of death metal and the esoteric atmosphere of black metal, and they prove it again here in even more multi-faceted ways. Operating at full-bore speed, “Ascension” combines a turbocharged, gut-busting drum assault with heavyweight, pulse-pounding bass propulsion. That hurtling rhythmic mayhem creates a brutal and electrifying undercarriage for an array of high, seething riffs, lunatic leads, and the vocalist’s mad and malevolent howling.

This combination of tumult and otherworldly terror is so fast and ferocious that it threatens to suck the wind from your lungs. The band do relent, segueing into a slower, hammering cadence and then a loping procession, and morbid gloom descends. When the fury is unchained again, the music seems to climb higher, channeling manifest defiance and tyrannical triumph. The leads combine sensations of cold cruelty, eerie mysticism, and something like the assurance that comes from inarguable devotion to the black arts. The song sounds like sorcery intermingled with savagery, and becomes mesmerizing as well as mutilating.

Hexekration Rites have told us this about the song: “‘Ascension‘ is a fast black-death metal assault coupled with some sharp heavy mid-tempos. The song was created to be the final track of the EP. The lyrics relate the last step of the whole ritual of the EP, and the music is also pushing forward a more complex and darker composition process. It closes this chapter, but is also a preview of the next album that is currently in composition.”

 

Atavism will release Desekration Manifesto in digipack CD and cassette tape editions, and pre-orders are open now.

Below you’ll find our premiere of “Ascension” plus another track released for streaming earlier this month, “Necrotriumph“. And in other news, the band are indeed finalizing a full-length, and making plans for a French tour with a fleshed-out live line-up.

PRE-ORDER:
CD: https://www.atavismrecords.com/product-page/pre-order-hexekration-rites-desekration-manifesto-cd
Cassette + Badge: https://www.atavismrecords.com/product-page/pre-order-hexekration-rites-desekration-manifesto-tape-badge
Bandcamp: https://hexekrationrites.bandcamp.com/album/desekration-manifesto

HEXEKRATION RITES:
https://www.facebook.com/HexekrationRites