(written by Islander)
For approximately 35 years the Dutch artist Maurice de Jong (aka Mories) has been churning out music as if his life depended on it (and we can infer that it probably does). This morning a count of his endeavors at Metal-Archives shows 45 current or past bands through which he has released music over that span of years.
The ones best known from that list are probably Gnaw Their Tongues, Cloak of Altering, and De Magia Veterum, but we should not lose sight of Hagetisse, one of the arguably more “traditional” of his musical vehicles, the tradition being strains of black metal rooted in the ’90s — witness the fact that Void Wanderer Productions recommends the newest Hagetisse album for fans of Ulver, Emperor, and Obtained Enslavement.
That new album, an 8-song affair, is titled To Wither Beneath Thy Radiance, and to help spread the word about it we’re premiering its title song today.
Void Wanderer also depicts the new album’s music as “melodic/atmospheric black metal,” “grandiose and bombastic,” featuring “tremolo picked melodies merged with merciless pummeling drums and subtle flourishes of synths” — “bleak, dark and without hope,” but “at the same time atmospheric and catchy.”
Those descriptions certainly suit the title track you’re about to hear. Listening to it inspires visions very much in line with the album’s spectacular cover image, with frightening unearthly glories above and black northern forests below.
The multi-layered riffing creates a feverish harmony, a distressing but gripping manifestation that maniacally writhes and perniciously wails above turbocharged blast-beats and heavy bass undulations. Just as ugly goblin-snarls make their crackling presence known, those unearthly glories rise and expand via cascading synths in the music’s stratospheric layers.
The guitars’ sizzling whirs, still feverish and scratchy but also glittering, create a change of mood, considerably more bleak and heart-broken. They meld with those celestial synths to magnify the music’s emotional intensity.
After a dismal churning bridge, the music charges again, drums furiously hurtling, the screams shattering, and the riffage boiling in pain and seeming to desperately yearn for relief. The music is exhilarating but also stricken, as much a disturbing emotional powerhouse as it is an electrifying black metal charge beneath spectacles of magnificence, and it makes a very memorable impact.
As usual, Maurice de Jong is the sole performer on this new album, and he recorded, mixed, and mastered it as well. Void Wanderer will release it in a limited run of pro-tapes. Find pre-orders via the link below.
PRE-ORDER:
https://voidwanderer.com/product/hagetisse-to-wither-beneath-thy-radiance-mc-preorder/
HAGETISSE (MAURICE DE JONG):
https://gnawtheirtongues.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/GnawTheirTonguesOfficial/