Hulder’s debut album Godslastering Hymns of a Forlorn Peasantry is a transportive experience. To be sure, it’s loaded with contagious riffs and head-moving rhythms, but it’s greatest success is in spurring the listener’s imagination, spiriting it away to settings that are far away from the mundane world. Many of those settings are the stuff of nightmares. Others are beguiling and bedazzling, but even then are beset by menace.
In your mind you may walk the halls of ancient castles inhabited by hellish princes and hostile wraiths, or wander through haunting midnight forests under a crescent moon. Your blood may be chilled by the emergence of vampiric creatures from an unsettling gloom, or quickened by the whirl of dancing — witnessing both peasants cavorting ’round a roaring blaze in a freeing moment, and minuets in imperious ballrooms long lost to the ages. But none of it seems real, and almost all of it feels sinister and perilous.
The combination of all these sensations makes the record electrifying, and one there’s no temptation to leave after you get into it. It’s thus with great pleasure that we present a full stream of it in advance of its January 22nd release by Iron Bonehead Productions.
The album is all the more impressive because it’s the work of a single individual, who was born in Belgium and now dwells in Portland, Oregon. In photos she presents herself in dramatically contrasting guises — wearing corpse-paint and brandishing spikes and swords, but also adorned in long dresses wandering through sunlit pastoral surroundings. This may be taken as a sign that Hulder both draws inspiration from the old classics of black metal (and it’s a broad range of influences for sure), but also doesn’t feel hemmed in by them.
That feeling comes through in the music. There’s certainly enough black metal bite to satisfy savage cravings — plentiful doses of blasting drums, grim and ripping tremolo’d chords, and vicious vocals. On that latter point, don’t be misled by Hulder’s appearance. The growls are bestial, and the snarls are venomous. But there’s a lot more going on here than bitter and brazen ravages.
By interweaving elements of dungeon synth, Hulder provides excursions into spectral realms, and also introduces otherworldly keyboard melodies in less turbulent moments that then carry forward when the surge resumes. Hulder creates medieval atmospherics in other ways as well, for example through the occasional use of acoustic instrumentation, some of it (as in “Purgations of Bodily Corruptions”) that really brings home the sound of ancient music.
Moreover, both in the guitar work and in the use of synths, Hulder generates melodies that sweep across the songs with unmistakable, albeit pitch-black, grandeur, and also insinuates fiery and flickering leads that supercharge the pulse (the skirling guitar lead in “From Whence an Ancient Evil Once Reigned” is a particular standout).
You’ll even get chances to bang your head, the chief among those being the highly infectious “Creature of Demonic Majesty” — which is a menacing beast, thanks to the thrusting and swaggering riff and the rocking back-beat that opens the song, a segment that later reappears after things get more venomous, roiling, and spooky.
And one final point to mention before leaving you to the music: Hulder knows how to write a song. There are structures in these creations, demonstrating a knack for establishing and then cycling between moods and motifs, and then introducing something new, and an equal knack for cooking up melodic hooks.
And with that we invite you to settle in and become transported for the next 40 minutes.
Digital pre-orders are available now, and Iron Bonehead will also release the album on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.
P.S. “Godslastering” seems to be an old Dutch word for blasphemy.
IRON BONEHEAD:
https://ironbonehead.de
https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/IronBoneheadProductions
HULDER:
https://www.hulder-official.com/
https://www.facebook.com/HulderUS/
20 Responses to “AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HULDER — “GODSLASTERING HYMNS OF A FORLORN PEASANTRY””
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Been waiting on this since the “Embraced by Darkness Mysts” EP a couple years back…really looking forward to it!
For the record, while Iron Bonehead only has two tracks available for streaming, Hulder’s Bandcamp has the entire album up and available
https://hulder.bandcamp.com/album/godslastering-hymns-of-a-forlorn-peasantry
Me like!
Great stuff! Loving Creature of Demonic Majesty. Such a catchy song.
Is it true that its not real one woman?? Ive read it fake((
Is it true that its not real one woman ?? I ve read that its fake(
Do you also make such (baseles) claims when it comes down to male acts? Where’s your proof?
Baseless*
Sown in barren soil is a devastating track!
It much more Death than Black Metal with a lack of originality if to be honest.
It much more Death than Black Metal with a lack of originality.
Next time, just say you don’t know the difference between black metal and death metal
Hehe. I chuckled
Godslastering is still in use, I would say.
Im not sure why, but I cannot seem to get ‘into’ Hulder…maybe this time around..?
I read that its not one woman but a band. Hmmm… Really dont know. Hulder is sounding very close to Bleeder in which she plays( as metalarchives said). I mean Death Trash with blackened elements. Very suspicious… even vocal is the same in that songs of Bleeder in which she is not signed as a vocalist..
Oh for Christ sake, this is fucking moronic and exactly how stupid bullshit gets started as “fact” on the internet
She’s very obviously labeled as one of the two vocalists for Bleeder on MA.
Female vocals, even extreme ones, tend to often be distinct…You can tell there are two different vocalists, and one’s obviously a woman.
The fucking picture of Bleeder on MA shows her standing in front of one of the mics, singing and playing guitar, with a very identifiable tattoo on her arm.
A quick scan of Bleeder’s Instagram shows additional images of her singing for the band
There’s also video clips of her standing there, again…fucking singing for the band.
Wherever you supposedly read this..they’re full of shit, and 10 seconds of research would have proved it.
Videos are too short to make a conclusion what exactly she played and how sings. Strange… but anyway music of hulder is very close to music of bleeder. Influence? And vocals are the same. I cannot distinguish there that second vocalist. She sings on all releases of Bleeder? Because in MA its written that only in one of them. But vocal on all releases of bleeder are the same as in hulder.
Its only observation. If you know all well tell more about this.
I have no “inside information” about Hilder or Bleeder, but will say that the promo of this album we received from Iron Bonehead’s publicist says that Hulder (the band) is “the sole work of the selfsame Hulder.”
As I know label IBP signs no contracts with bands. All is based only on trust. Majority of conversations with such labels are through email, so any band can write to labels all their “phantasies” about themselves. And he may not know who is a real author of music. Anyway info which labels write cannot be 100% true.
You don’t need any insider info to confirm this. Go reread the MA page and then use your ears
Metal Archives has the woman who does Hulder listed under the name The Inquisitor as Guitars/Vocals for Bleeder. She isn’t influenced by Bleeder, she’s a member..you literally cannot miss that unless you’re intentionally trying.
Additionally, it says vocalist, not back up vocalist…so it doesn’t matter how short the Instagram videos are, she’s clearly sharing vocal duties with the other guitarist and the videos and pictures back this up.
As for who does what, they seem to trade off depending on the song…for example, on their Time to Die demo, she’s clearly singing lead on the song The Inquisitor, while on the song Bleeder, she’s the one singing back-up, doing the high pitched shriek during the chorus. Hell, you can hear them switch vocal duties during the the track The Witch. He starts the song, and then at the 2:00 mark she starts to sing, then he comes back in at around the 2:30 mark.
Seriously dude…don’t be that guy