Henget rethinks music creation.
In 2023, the Finnish band consisting of King Aleijster de Satan (vocals, King Satan, Saturnian Mist), Jesse J. Heikkinen (guitar/keyboards), Lasse J. Launimaa (keyboards) and Ville J. Rissanen (drums) announced the release of Beyond the North Star, their debut album, through Season of Mist.
The album opens with the ominous introduction of Dive, the first composition, which lets strange influences graft themselves onto a mysterious guitar, followed by a solid and devastating blast serving as basis for raw vocal parts. Heady keyboards frame the furious waves before a few melodies pierce the sonic fog to give the composition joyful tones before I Am Them, the next track, explores Black Metal’s roots. The touch of madness remains important in the construction of leads while vocals venture into darkness, making the atmosphere particularly heavy by leading us to Henkivallat’s crazy dance, a rather catchy but dissonant track. Fury will also surprise us by suddenly exploding, but the track remains anchored in darkness, as evidenced by the terrifying final followed by The Great Spiral and its aggressive roots. The epic leads mix perfectly with the raw basis and keyboards to offer a majestic and Old School approach before a haunting break where saturation slowly comes back to life, then Beyond North Star develops in its turn an impressive atmosphere where darkness flies between heady melodies. Some quieter parts come to temporize the composition’s bursts of insanity, before letting a disturbing final lead us to Lovi and its choking riffs. Even when the rhythmic pattern kicks in, the track retains its dissonant and disturbing tones, while occasionally coupling them with softer elements which will eventually temporarily extinguish aggressive roots before letting them run wild again until the end. Nouse unveils a soothing melody which will gradually turn into an ominous lament, barely hiding some possessed and muffled vocals in the background as well as a rhythmic that gradually strengthens, and then the whole thing fades away before The Chalice of Life and Death returns to its raw Black Metal roots, sometimes tinged with airy keyboards or that surprising touch which contrasts with the more abrasive elements.
Reading Henget‘s description, I didn’t know what to expect. But Beyond North Star is an album that knows how to mix aggressive Old School roots with madness and soaring sounds, but above all with the permanent unexpected.
85/100