Review Summary: A symphonic black metal album that balances cheese and riffs to perfection.
Mystic Circle is a band that just popped on to my radar within the past couple of months. Being a black metal fanboy, I was shocked when I realized that this band has been around since 1992 and I've never heard of them. With that being said, I went into
Hexenbrand 1486 completely blind and with no prior knowledge of the band's back catalog. What I discovered within the 45 minute run time of this album is that this style of gothic-drenched, cheesily demonic symphonic black metal still hits the spot more often than not.
What I love about this album is that the marriage between the synths and the riffs is balanced, and therefore, one doesn't drown out the other. ‘The Scarlet Queen of Harlots’ is a track that perfectly blends romantic yet eerie piano pieces with ice-cold riffage and menacing shrieks. The solo around the 3.5 minute mark pays homage to the raw, old-school thrash metal sound of the early/mid-80s. The keyboard work throughout this entire album is almost reminiscent to the lo-fi dungeon synth sound of early Summoning albums, bringing to mind the darkest imagery of Lord of the Rings.
There's tons of melodic, triumphant-sounding synths throughout this album, but that doesn't mean that the riffs aren't just as prevalent. In fact, a lot of this album's riffs are heavily influenced by the classical-inspired style of the first two Dissection albums. A song like ‘Boogeyman’ is almost traditional heavy metal-esque with the thunderous yet clean riffs and tinges of melody seeped into your ear drums. ‘In the Sign of the Goat’ is a dreary, doom-inspired track with vampyric keys hovering in the background and sensual female vocals. This album is drenched in gothic undertones as the overall supernatural-esque atmosphere and haunting female croons are definitely leaning in a direction a la modern-era Cradle of Filth.
A lot of the riffs on this album are akin to bands like Dark Funeral and Marduk with relentless speed and power, but also adding icy melodies on top of that. ‘Ghost of Whitechapel’ is a track that adds in a folkish, atmospheric black metal flare with floating, mountainous riffs that sound like an avalanche rushing downhill at rapid speed. The end of the track sounds like a demonic lullaby with ghostly keyboards leading you into the cult-like, ritualistic interlude ‘Institoris’. The next track, ‘The Bible of Witch Chase’ almost reminds me of the early Children of Bodom albums because of the neoclassical-inspired riffs and cryptic synths. You also need your breakneck, straight-up black metal heavy hitter and that's exactly what ‘Blutschande Unzucht Sodomie’ is with banging death metal-inspired riffage, savage blast beats and a frigid industrial atmosphere.
The only real downside of this album is that it can get a bit samey at times, and if you're not a fan of semi-cheesy symphonic black/gothic metal, you're probably not going to find much to enjoy here. I, however, got into extreme metal because of music like this. In fact, “sellout” bands like Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir and Children of Bodom really shaped my musical taste as a whole. This type of black metal may not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you love yourself some over-the-top stuff,
Hexenbrand 1486 should fill every one of your spooky season needs!
