And so it's time to move further east now, through Romania and then down south over the Black Sea, past Iraq and into its troubled neighbour, the enfant terrible of Middle Eastern politics and a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism.
I suppose it's inevitable, living in what is basically a radical theocracy, that Iranian metal would tend to gravitate towards the darker, blacker end of the spectrum and I can assume there are few if any Christian metal bands plying their trade there. However it also seems unlikely that metal bands in general would write music praising Allah, and although it may be and probably is really simplifying things, is it wrong to expect that in a country in which there is so little religious or sexual freedom that the kids would rebel and turn to the other side? Maybe it is, but it can't be denied that when you go looking for Iranian metal bands, at least on Metal Archives, which is my resource for metal outside of the norm, a massive percentage of them turn out to be Black Metal. Like these guys.
Infernal Monarchy --- Helzgloriam --- 2015 (Misantrof ANTIRecords)
I don't honestly know if the band name is an Iranian word, but I have a feeling it's just meant to be a cooler way of saying “Hell's glory” and make it look Latin perhaps. It may also be interesting that this is the first release from this band, who only formed in 2013, and got their first record out this year. What's very interesting though, is that of the four members, all male, all Iranian, it would appear none of them write the lyrics. That's left up to an American, and with names in the band like Agzaroth, Ophion and Attila Magnus, the name Greg Hadley seems as incongruous as a virgin at a Mayhem orgy. Whether our man Greg contributes to the band in any other way is not known: he's simply credited as the lyricist. This could be so that Helzgloriam can sing in English, and perhaps they aren't fluent enough in the language to write in it, but they do seem to be able to sing in it.
Although a Black Metal album, this is a Symphonic one, and while that's closer to the type of Black Metal I prefer (ambient being my other go-to sub-subgenre) it's not because I want to give myself an easy ride here that I chose it. Quite simply, as I find every year as I range farther afield to take in metal from countries not normally associated with the genre, it remains harder and harder to find bands who actually have albums, and then to find those albums somewhere that I can hear them. I went through about five bands who all looked good before these, but found either only demos, singles or albums that were not available. Helzgloriam were the first I came across who actually had something I could get my hands and ears on, and so they were chosen.
The album is not what you would call an epic by any stretch of the imagination. With a total of eight tracks making up under thirty minutes in all, it's not going to take too long to get through it. Whether that means we have eight throwaway songs here, and I'll be glad when I get to the end, or that we have an undiscovered gem and I'm left wanting more, we'll know definitively in exactly twenty six minutes and twenty-seven seconds.
Well there's a nice slow atmospheric guitar and rising dark keys opening “At the heart of Betlehem” (sic) with voices, dark pealing bells, sounds of knocking or hammering, a choir and a big scream, possibly the sound of whips? Yeah whips I think: someone's getting thrashed for sure. Oh, and that's it as we move into “Deconstruct Satanus (sic) knowledge”, with a harder, more pounding guitar and now we get vocals. They're scratchy and growly, as you would expect, but a lot more intelligible than some I've heard in this subgenre. I think there may be two vocalists, one doing the main, screeching voice (that would be Attila Magnus, who also plays the guitar) and another (bass player I think, who goes by the interesting name of Seraphimouz Nanzerne) exhibiting a deeper, more animalistic growl. Guitar work is great, and the keys from Ophion add a really nice ambience, bringing in more choral vocals as everything slips away to just them and the guitar slowly chiming. Now some shredding as the vocal returns (the screechy one), the guitar takes us up to the big finish and into “Satanum”.
Again we get a hard, grinding guitar as the vocalist comes in, with an interesting midsection which seems to involve female vocals, maybe? Hard to say. Definitely more guitar-driven here, and another fairly short track, and the guitar remains in prominence as “Resurrection sigil” slows things down a little with a sort of romping guitar sound more reminiscent of traditional metal bands really. First song on the album that fades. “Hex propaganda” has a great beat and melody, odd things to say about Black Metal perhaps, but I really like this one. Again the keys are pushed fairly far back into the shadows with guitar taking centre stage, and a fine job of it does Attila Magnus. This fades too, but the following track is almost pure thrash metal, and “Obscure wing of ascent” is one of the shorter tracks here, but also pretty much a standout for me. Superb guitar work on it and the drumming, thanks to Agzaroth, is ace too.
That just leaves us with two tracks to hear before saying goodbye to these guys, with “The black essence” really kicking out the stays and letting the lads loose to enjoy themselves, some badass riffing here but most notably we see the return of Ophion to the forefront, with some fine synthwork, and the album then closes on the almost prog-like “Cavernous prayers”, which actually at the last moment gets my vote for standout on the album, and it's up against some pretty stiff competition! The usage of the keys and choral vocals here swings it for me though. It's also an instrumental, and a damn good one.
TRACKLISTING
1. At the heart of Betlehem
2. Deconstruct Satanus knowledge
3. Satanum
4. Resurrection sigil
5. Hex propoganda
6. Obscure wing of ascent
7. The black essence
8. Cavernous prayers
I would not have expected anything of this quality a) from a black metal band and b) from an Iranian black metal band. These guys stand out from the crowd in their songwriting and their playing, and I can't fault even the vocals. With this being their first album I hope it won't be their only one; the world needs to hear more of this. A really worthy effort, and something you should check out.