Review Summary: Just as soon as we belong, then it's time...
I don't know how it came to pass that black metal turned into the subgenre that, despite its reputation for being the most dogmatic concerning purity, gets mixed the most with other styles of music. Blackened death, blackened thrash, post-black, blackgaze, Zeal & Ardor mixing it with old negro spirituals, it's wild how well black metal's various characteristics seem to weave nicely in with other genres. That said, it's the post/gaze that, at least to my ears, works the best. Black metal is, at its heart, a style of music rooted in feelings of isolation, and the gloom of post metal as well as the introspection of shoegaze seem a good home for it.
Hegemone is a post/black band that's apparently unknown enough that I had to be the one to put their information onto this website just so I could post this review, and this is their second album. For such an obscure band, it's impressive how mature the sound is. It's dark, and it's intense, but it's not vicious. We Disappear is also a pretty long affair, at least on a track by track basis, going over 50 minutes with only a half dozen cuts on it. So, you know what you're in for.
The magic of a good post/black band is that they can throw a big wall of distorted guitars and agonized shrieks at you but, instead of feeling like you want to don corpse paint and burn down some religious places of worship, you'd rather lie on your back and close your eyes, take a breath, and drift away into your own mind. Even when blast beats do land, they're less inspiring a mosh pit and more of a rolling foundation for the music to rest upon. Hegemone plays with urgency, sounding almost desperate rather than furious. This is music to listen to while sitting on the side of a bridge, feet dangling in the air. You know you're not going to actually throw yourself over, but that gaze into the abyss, as it were, is compelling in its own right. Beautiful, despite the darkness.
I harp on production in my reviews a lot, but god damn I love the production of We Disappear. Everything is so clear and separated, the drums land powerfully, guitars and bass are perfectly distinct from one another (and hey, the bass is an integral part of the band!), and the vocals sit just perfectly in the mix, neither up front nor buried in the back. When Hegemone cranks up the volume, it's awe-inspiring, when they quiet down, it's beautiful. Everything is just exactly where it needs to be, nothing overproduced and digital sounding nor plagued by necro/basement garbage.
Of course, none of that would matter for squat if Hegemone's songwriting wasn't up to snuff, and it very much is. Minor key melodies weave and dance their way along, ebbing and flowing naturally, each one painting a picture of its own. "Fracture" goes right for the throat with blast beats and trem picking, while "Raising Barrows" sounds, amusingly enough, almost like a Barrows track as it builds up to its climax, taking more of the post- rather than the -black. It's also worth saying that this is taking post-metal cues rather than post-rock, so expect more of a Neurosis influence than Explosions in the Sky.
An obvious knock on We Disappear would be its length. Under an hour isn't especially long, but given that all of these songs are lengthy individually, it can be tiresome if you're looking for something more dynamic. The nearly sixteen-minute closer is especially intimidating and, while one hell of an experience, being a single track that's longer than a lot of metal EPs means that I wouldn't blame a lot of people if they struggled to hang through it. But then, that's often the appeal of post/black for those who enjoy the style. Hegemone isn't breaking the mold, and We Disappear isn't shaking the foundations, but they're a band who could easily rise in the ranks and this is an album that could show up on a number of AOTY lists. Highly recommended.
