Hollenthon | ‘Opus Magnum’

Hollenthon’s first album in seven years starts off in bombastic fashion, with a pounding operatic drumbeat and guitar riff. As the vocals kick in, the sheer similarities to Dimmu Borgir on “Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse” simply can’t be ignored. The Austrians have obviously been looking to the north in the past few years. They use a similar style of clean vocal, but with a more subtle effect, due to it being buried, (perhaps intentionally?) a little too deeply in the mix, with the result that the backing vocals seem to be slightly detached from the rest of the music at times. The choir used sound excellent though, and complement the blasting of the music to surprisingly good effect. Therion, and other such sympho-goth rubbish, take heed.

Vocally, it’s a deep, slow growl from Martin Schirenc that takes its time rumbling out from the speakers, and it is used in stark contrast to the sharp violins and snappy drum and guitar riffs that perpetuate throughout the album. Think Nightwish’s music mixed with Old Man’s Child’s vocals and you’ll get the idea. Some of the vocals, particularly on “Ars Moriendi”, sound absolutely stunning, exactly as one would expect a gutteral demon from hell to sound like, and it’s something black metal bands have strived to sound like for years, yet they’re rattled out seemingly in passing, and really catch the ear.

The unintended downside of the album however is “Son Of Perdition”. It’s a killer song, but the band have completely and utterly lifted the chorus from that rap song of years ago “Whoomp! (There It Is)”, and it’s comical. It almost seems like a cover, and makes the song so hard to listen to. It’s THAT close to the chorus, one can’t take it seriously. The same goes for “Once We Were Kings”, which manages to unwittingly reference the chorus of “Fire” by The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown. It’s hard to escape these mental pictures, and does make those two songs a bit awkward to listen to, although the chorus of “Once We Were Kings” is awesome.

Those niggles aside, the rest of the album rocks a hell of a lot. It sounds mature, with not one single riff or vocal part wasted, and each instrument and choir piece fits the symphony perfectly. Really, it’s going to be hard for anyone to find much fault with this album. Barring the slightly low backing vocals, it’s mixed almost to perfection, and just WORKS, on almost every level.

This reviewer caught Hollenthon live at Graspop 08, and was very much taken aback at the spectacle onstage, hence the petition to MI Towers for the review. They sounded awesome, and it’s plain to see that the recorded stuff has transferred well to the live setting. One can only hope it’s not a further 7 years until their next opus.

4 / 5 - Dónal McBrien ::: 25/09/08