Melancholic Epiphany
Probably everyone of us is looking forward to his or her birthday for various reasons. One of this reasons could be, that you get a lot of presents. But what could be better than receiving presents on your birthday? Right, receiving presents on another persons birthday. So lets sing: Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday Hypnotic Dirge Records and thanks for the compilation!
Eleven artists from several black metal genres congratulate HDR on their second birthday and therefore contributing 1:31 hours of “bittersweet symphonies”. But wait! there’s more: Beside those acoustic epiphanies there are six videos (whereas two of them are promotional) and four essays.
You could see the compilation as a best of past, present and future concerning the activities of HDR. Eight tracks out of eleven were either of a past release or give a preview to upcoming ones (which should be the case for at least .netra). The other three are contributed by guestartists, in fact by Funeral in Heaven, Autaric and Njigahdda.
As said previously, there are several subgenres of black metal scattered around and you’d have to analyse it track-by-track to say anything more specific about the compilation, but that would take too much time and space. But anyway, there’s definitely some piece of cake for everyone. You could find something doomy like The Foetal Mind or Funereal, some depressive tracks by Exiled from Light or even downtempo/trip hop songs like the one from .netra.
Conclusion:
You seldom receive any better presents, most notably not for your unbirthday. Of course you won’t be pleased with every single song, but the profile should be pretty satisfying, at least since you can download it for free.
Rating: 90/100
Hypnotic Dirge Records – Homepage
Tracklist:
- The Foetal Mind – Big Crunch
- Funereal – Of That Which Lies Beneath
- Funeral Fornication – Stargates Eternal Beheld My Nightmares
- Exiled From Light – We Writhe As Worms
- .netra – Outside … Alone
- Ancient Tundra – The Shimmering Radience of a Thousand Stars
- Njiqaddha – Nji Taaevaasti Vortaa Est Flaami
- Neige Et Noirceur – Croix de Feu, Croix de fer
- Funeral In Heaven – Bandhana (Gatahaththey Katha Wasthuwa)
- Autaric – Cremation Divine
- Old Forgotten Lands – Hour Of The Wolves
