Roughly two years ago we premiered the debut album from the Swedish black metal band Hinsides (whose name means “Beyond” in English). We spilled a great volume of words about that album, beginning with these:
“The album’s name is Under Betlehems brinnande stjärna, and it is a confluence of surprises that create what might seem to be paradoxical results, harboring music that at first blush is so willfully abrasive it might repel rather than attract, but turns out to be exhilarating and unexpectedly enthralling — even magical.”
Now we’re very happy to spread the word that Hinsides is returning with a second full-length, ushered from an infernal realm into our own by Shadow Records and Regain Records. The name of this one is Hinsides hörs djävulsklockans urklang, which can be rendered in our own mother tongue as “From beyond the ancient chime of the devil bell is heard,”, and what we have for you today is the debut of its title track.
Hinsides is the solo project of M.A. from Ultra Silvam, though for the new album he was joined by Ultra Silvam drummer L.A., who rings the bells of hellish doom, and Jonas Hansson from Silver Mountain drops a stunning guitar solo into the song “I nekromisantropisk harmoni“. We also can’t resist mentioning that Hinsides adds an evil cover of “The Damned” by Plasmatics as a bonus for physical editions of the album.
But let’s now get to the album’s title track, which does indeed bring back those words quoted above from our previous premiere — but we need to add some.
On the one hand, the sound of the riffing is again rough and raw, be-fuzzed and malignant, and the vocals are pure howling venom thrown from a serrated cutting blade. On the other hand, the bass is a vivid and nimble presence, and the drumming sounds like you’re right in the garage with the kit and the performer as the beats change (and change they do).
What is most startling, however (apart from the chime-like peals and tolling bell), are the piercing yet still unclean tones of the guitar leads and solos, and the ways in which they magically wail, scream, contort, and convulse. Especially in tandem with the chimes, they don’t sound like a thing of our world, but instead like the devil’s own agonies and ecstasies.
You’ll also discover that the grime-encrusted riffs will get your head moving, even at their most menacing and feral, as well as when they sound witchy or downcast.
All of which is a long way of saying that the song is diabolically multi-faceted in its movements, tones, and moods, somehow both primitive and elaborate, evil and seductive.
Hinsides hörs djävulsklockans urklang will be released on December 15th, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats, with pre-orders available now.
Two other songs are available to stream from the album at Bandcamp, which in their length are on either side of the one we’ve premiered today — the sub-two-minute spellbinder “Djävulshymn” and the afore-mentioned and nearly seven-minute “I nekromisantropisk harmoni“, which is just fucking glorious and wild in its dervish whirls, as well as mysterious and arcane — and that guest guitar solo in the song (we repeat) is simply not to be missed.
Both of them prove that even the multi-faceted title song we’ve just premiered still doesn’t fully reveal all the infernal marvels this album presents.
PRE-ORDER:
https://regainrecords.bandcamp.com/album/hinsides-h-rs-dj-vulsklockans-urklang
https://www.shadowrecords.se