Helegion: Ritualis

For sure it is very difficult for a band of 2014 to catch and deliver the level of the atmosphere and of the aesthetics that the classic albums of Black Metal deliver. The situations becomes even more difficult as until 2014 maybe thousands of albums which play that kind of sound have been released so that originality to be almost impossible. So a band of 2014 of that kind of sound, depends solely on the passion and the personality that it will deliver into its compositions in order to achieve to draw the attention of the fans. So, I think that Helegion from France, have manage to achieve that with their second demo which was released in March of 2014 called Helegion: Ritualis. The album contains two atmospheric introductions which put you inside the ritual, three compositions of their own and one cover of The Gate of Nanna of Beherit.

Here we will come across dirty, harsh, very dark Black Metal in that raw and primitive style of Black Metal of the early ’90ies. The riffs mainly are of medium speed, solid and heavy, while we will also come across frozen ones with some epic references. The slow riffs are those which add a very special character to the compositions as they become very dark and heavy, letting out a funeral atmosphere, letting the Funeral Doom influences of the band to appear. The compositions mostly depend on the intense atmosphere and the feelings that the riffs transmit to the listener. The band creates simple regarding their structure, beautiful and quite interesting riffs, they may not have many changes into the compositions but those few ones that exist are sufficient enough in order to maintain the listener’s interest. The structure of the tracks follows that simple and minimal style of the riffs demonstrating that the music that is not created with perfect technic or complicated structure, can offer a lot of emotions to the listener.

As in the composing part, so applies also to the part of the result of the sound that the band has an obvious orientation to the sound of ’90ies. The production is rotten, dirty and black putting out a bass, very dark and heavy sound. The mixture is balanced and gives the impression that it is a quite good live recording. The guitars are the basic instrument of the compositions and their sound is somehow more powerful. They are played with much passion and intensity. The bass is audible, although it has simple lines, it fills the compositions flawlessly giving them the depth the they need. The sound of the drums is a little lower than the rest of the instruments, without that becoming irritating. Their lines are minimal, but also having the technical parts which make the difference and will draw the attention. The vocals are harsh Black Metal vocals, in other parts are heavier, in other ones harsher, but always very expressive and passionate. The lyrics are written in English, they are not contained in the cassette and from the atmosphere I assume that they talk about Satan, about Demons and rituals.

The band with Helegion: Ritualis I think that has achieved what it wanted to, that is to create an album in the style of the primitive Black Metal of the ’90ies and though its compositions to put out its personality and its special character. I believe that this demo is a very good work and it deserves your attention.