Description

2016 reissue in digipack

With a much more heavy and brutal sound than the raw screeching black metal sound of “A Slaughter Of Innocence, A Requiem For The Mighty” and “Dark Requiems And Unsilent Massacre”, Hecate Enthroned’s “Kings Of Chaos” begins as though a death metal album and not a black metal album, but at one minute and twenty seconds, the old telltale melodic symphony rejoins the band to bring back at least one of the old standards of Hecate Enthroned’s blasphemous black metal. The double bass in this album is noticeable from the onset as it has much more bass sound than raw clicking. The drumming seems nearly the same as with the old Hecate Enthroned, but the guitars seem to have greatly changed. There is a new emphasis on down-tuned riffing compared to the last Hecate album as the guitars seem to find some commonplace in blackened death metal riffing containing the brutal down-tuned groaning of death metal guitar work and the blistering tremolo picking of black metal blasting. The vocals have changed a lot as well. There are many more gutturals than before with fewer screams. The screams are nowhere near the old calibre of screeching that Hecate had in “Dark Requiems”, but they now take on a mix of death metal screeches and the throaty gravely yells of Immortal. The screams are much more understandable as well as the gutturals and now are not nearly as raw as they were. There is much better production vocal-wise as well as on all the other elements of the album. It seems that Hecate Enthroned is missing some of their old macabre black metal atmosphere in preference of a blackened death metal brutal chill that fills the air as the interludes and instrumentals play. The symphonic sections are also less epic than they used to be and now seem to be more gothic in style as they end the songs in preference to the earlier small interludes in the songs giving them a more morose feel. This makes it seem as though the symphonic sections are there just for an epic ending on a sad note, but the song “Repent” there is an uplifting epic symphonic section that keeps the power of symphony on the listener’s mind as the band continues their reign of chaos around it. There is a new character to the new Hecate Enthroned and this album is rather acceptable blackened death metal, a drastically shocking move from the original sound that Hecate Enthroned was creating. This, though is not a terrible change, the songs are much more accessible to death metal fans as there are many more death metal elements to it and the crossover of this band does make them very unique in the respect that they are so versatile that they can go from one of the most krieg albums I’ve heard in a long time to such a brutal album that still retains a good amount of the grim elements of pure black metal. If Hecate does continue in this vein, they will make for some very enjoyable symphonic blackened death metal, though I believe many fans will still be yearning for the old Hecate Enthroned sound that made the band so amazingly unique and the macabre theatrics that made the band so grimly appealing in the first place.

Track list:
1. Miasma
2. Perjurer
3. Deceiving The Deceiver
4. Malignant Entity
5. Blessing In Disguise
6. I Am Born
7. Exalted In Depravity
8. Conquest Complete
9. The Downfall
10. Repent
11. Witch Queen Ascending