Hierophant Archives - NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS ALBUM/VIDEO PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): HIEROPHANT — “GATEWAY TO THE ABYSS”

Mar 272024

In August 2022 Season of Mist Underground Activists released Death Siege, the very impressive fifth album by the Italian extreme metal band Hierophant. In his review at our site, Andy Synn noted that the album revealed the band “making an unexpected heel-turn away from the crusty, sludgy, Blackened Hardcore sound of their previous records to instead become a full-blown Black Metal band (albeit, one with a distinctly deathly tinge) in the vein of Death Fortress, Rites of Thy Degringolade, Panzerfaust“. Andy further wrote:

“[T]here’s no denying that this new, more blackened version of the band are still very, very good at what they do…. As a result I’d say this is the perfect jumping on point for potential new fans since – if the oppressive atmospherics and visceral sonic violence of closer “Nemesis of Thy Mortals” are anything to go by – Death Siege looks, and sounds, to me, like the beginning of a whole new era for the band”.

Following the release of Death Siege, Hierophant performed on some very big stages, honing their live rendition of the songs on Death Siege and burnishing their reputation. This led to the decision to record their performance at Hellfest 2023 in France, and to release it as Hierophant‘s first live album — Gateway to the Abyss — which will be released on Match 29th by the Dusktone label.

As icing on the cake, that show was also caught on film, and today we premiere the new album in tandem with an exceptional video. Continue reading »

THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED (BUT SHOULDN’T)

Album Reviews 1 Response »

Sep 062022

(What albums did you miss last month? Andy Synn is here to tell you about a few of them)

August was… a pretty shitty month for me, all in all. For a variety of different reasons.

That’s probably why today’s edition of Things You May Have Missed is such a dark one – sometimes you just need a dose of darkness to help put things in perspective.

SHADES OF BLACK: HIEROPHANT, LIMINAL SHROUD, ARALLU, VERBERIS, WRANG, HADIQAT

Album Reviews, SHADES OF BLACK 6 Responses »

Jun 192022

After a lapse last week this column re-takes its usual place on the weekly calendar to blacken the sabbath. I’ll quickly confess that I bit off more than I can chew in the writing, and more than most of you will have time to hear in the listening: I’ve picked two complete albums and mixed them together with four new singles. Despite the challenges to myself and to you, I felt so strongly about all these choices that I couldn’t resist.

As is often the case, I haven’t lived with either of the albums long enough to do more than provide scattered notes about them. That’s the consequence of needing to write about something new every day. Settling in gives way to scurrying. But you’ll have a better chance to settle in with these releases, and I hope you will. All the singles sound fantastic too.

HIEROPHANT (Italy)

Death Siege is the fifth full-length from this talented band, who are charging toward us after a six-year interval following the last album. The new one is 40 minutes long, and the cover art by Abomination Hammer alone would make most people want to find out what’s going on in the music. My friend Andy‘s Synn Report about the band’s discography back in 2016 would provide more reasons.

What Hierophant say about the music is this: “”With Death Siege, we crossed the gateway to the abyss. Nihilism will overcome, when the sky will burn in fire. Death, Chaos, Annihilation.” Continue reading »

THE SYNN REPORT, PART 78: HIEROPHANT

Album Reviews, THE SYNN REPORT 1 Response »

Oct 282016

(In this October edition of THE SYNN REPORT, Andy reviews the discography of Italy’s Hierophant — including their brand new album Mass Grave.)

Recommended for fans of: Trap Them, Rotten Sound, Black Breath

There are times in your life when only the nastiest, gnarliest, most pissed-off and punishing form of auditory abuse will do. Which is the perfect time to crank up any one of the four albums by Italian iconoclasts Hierophant.

Each of the band’s releases is a short, sharp, 600-volt shock to the system, a nose-splintering headbutt from out of nowhere, a stiff, straight shot right to the kidneys, a swift and sudden punch to the throat that leaves you gasping and choking… what I’m trying to say is that these boys don’t play nice, they fight dirty.

Straddling the line between Hardcore and Grindcore, with a hefty helping of blackened venom and sludge and doomy nihilism to boot, the band’s sound is definitely one of the most singularly aggressive and gleefully ugly that I’ve had the (dis)pleasure to encounter in recent years.

And so, with a new album on the horizon, I felt it was high time that the rest of you were made to share my pain! Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HIEROPHANT, SACRIFICIO, BLACK VUL DESTRUKTOR, SITHTER, BLACK THERAPY, MOTH GATHERER

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 2 Responses »

Oct 142016

I nearly decided to call this round-up “Overpowering Audio Carnage” or “Your End Is Near”, but decided those headlines wouldn’t quite suit everything I’ve collected here — though they would suit most of it.

I guess I’m in a bloody frame of mind, and these songs struck the right chord, some of them because they’re fucking bloody and cathartic and some of them because they turned my fevered mind in other appealing directions. I’m going to start with the especially nasty and destructive stuff.

HIEROPHANT

I’ve been meaning to check out the music from Hierophant’s new album Mass Grave and finally took the plunge when CVLT Nation premiered a track from it yesterday (thanks to Utmu for pointing me to it). I’m glad I was sitting down or it would have knocked me flat. Continue reading »