Review Summary: Hecate Enthroned return to their roots.
The UK black metal scene has always flown a bit under the radar, in my personal opinion. Other than the worldwide success of Cradle of Filth, not many other bands have come to the forefront for the scene and achieved international success. That's not to say that they don't have their fair share of amazing black metal bands because they do, but they've all been looking up to Cradle of Filth for the past three-plus decades. Hecate Enthroned is one of those bands and they have been ripped in the past for sounding like an exact clone of Cradle. In some ways, those complaints are valid. Their first two albums in particular have been shredded just because they sound like they could've come straight off of
Dusk and Her Embrace or
Cruelty and the Beast. I, however, really enjoy those albums (duh) and most of their catalogue for that matter. Their brand new album,
The Corpse of a Titan, a Lament Long Buried does nothing to dispel my love for this band.
Over the past 20-25 years, Hecate Enthroned has undergone multiple changes. Starting out as a purely symphonic black/gothic metal band, they then switched their style up to a modern version of blackened death metal. It ultimately was what the band wanted to do, but it kind of felt a bit watered down compared to their earlier stuff. On
The Corpse of a Titan, a Lament Long Buried, the guys take a page from their own book and go right on back to the symphonic black metal sound that made their first couple of albums so great, but they've added modern production. It's clean, but not a distraction at all and all of the instruments and synths have a chance to shine through. The riffs are still at the forefront, but the synths give the album a feeling of being at some sort of demented carnival. Vocally, this album is shrill, high-pitched and downright hellish. Even the intro and interlude tracks add their own flare to the album overall, giving off vibes of ancient folklore and almost like a house of mirrors. The sound is pretty straightforward, but you'd be hard pressed to find a better executed album in this genre in 2026.
Hecate Enthroned, in my opinion, have never gotten the credit that they deserved. It may be because they turned into a somewhat “generic” death metal band along the way, but the boys have really returned to their roots with this album. Any fans of symphonic black metal, and black metal in general, should be able to find plenty to love about
The Corpse of a Titan, a Lament Long Buried. Like I said, every piece of the album adds up to one twisted, demonic-sounding black metal album and it's nice to hear them return to the roots that made them so great all of those years ago. Some things, may have changed, but one thing is for sure, this is vintage Hecate Enthroned and I'm definitely here for it.
