Hierofánia

Algor come from Slovakia, a country with a small scene in which we will find some remarkable releases. The band consists of two members and it was formed in 1998. Their releases are not many, three demos, two splits and two full length albums. “Hierofánia” is their second full length album which was released in a beautiful digipack edition in November of 2013. It contains nine compositions, the three of which (2, 3 and 8) have been presented in an older release too and here they have been re – recorded. In the fifty five minutes that the album lasts, the listener will come across frozen Black Metal with several melodic elements, depressing passages, fast – storming parts and all this matched nicely to each other. The main influences of the band will have to be sought into bands like Emperor, Darkthrone and Dissection, balancing between the melodic and the raw and violent side of Black Metal.

The riffs are following two directions depending on the feeling, that is either they are fast, violent, minimalistic and raw, either atmospheric, heavy and dark. The band has achieved to deliver in a balanced way, the atmosphere of Emperor, the melody of Dissection with the harshness and the coldness of Darkthrone and to add touches of epic but also melancholic – depressive sound. The remarkable thing is that all those mentioned above is combined very nicely without looking strange, while the band has its personal identity and style and is using its influences creatively. The tracks are quite big regarding their duration (from five to eight) but their structure is very good and they achieve to maintain the listener’s interest throughout the entire album. The band tries to change the style and the atmosphere inside the compositions and it offers to the listener a lot and intense feelings, something that makes them very interesting.

As you understood, concerning the composition, the band has made a mentionable work. The same good word has been done in the instrumentation and the sound too. The guitars have a full and solid sound, clean and they are played with much passion and full of feeling. The keyboards also give the listener a very nice taste to the listener as they appear only in certain parts and they serve the purpose of the band flawlessly without becoming tedious. The bass fills the well but it doesn’t anything special. On the other hand, the drums have very interesting lines with a lot of turnings, changes in the rhythm and in the style of playing, they are played with power, accuracy and stability. The vocals are harsh and somewhat heavier Black Metal vocals, passionate and powerful, they match to the style of the compositions. The production is clean and bass while the mixture is balanced. The sound that is coming out is bass but clean so that you can listen to the different instruments and at the same time the compositions to be solid and powerful. The lyrics are written in Slovakian and they are not contained in the cd.

It may have taken ten years to Algor to release their second full length album but it worth the waiting of their fans. It seems that the band has matured both musically and regarding the composing process and it can offer a work that will remain in the history of the Slovakian scene. Summarizing, I believe that “Hierofánia” is a quite good work that it combines many different elements, all of them tied together in a very beautiful way. It deserves your attention. Listen to it.