I am a fan of anything Kvohst does. The two main projects he juggles these days are Grave Pleasures and his often more folky band Hex Vessel, which is releasing their 6th album. It takes a turn from the beginning with the more black metal buzz of guitar casting cold shadows behind the mournful vocal melody. It moves at more of a drone, but with the dreary chant of the vocals, it somehow works. He does have a black metal past, so this is not a surprise in how these sounds are married. Things are darker going into the second song for sure. Bolzer provides backup vocals to this one with a call-and-response feel to the croon of McNerney.
Chelsea Wolfe collaborator Ben Chisholm darkens things up with his synth contributions for "Listen to the River". "A Cabin in Montana" drifts and drones in cold blackened darkness, which resonates with me but drapes it's self thickly in the background. The vocals find more focus on "Eternal Meadow" . There is some interesting laying of guitar midway into this song, that reflects what was their once folk side. A single note guitar melody weeps out from the proceedings as the song continues to drift into darker places. "Crepuscular Creatures" is like putting a Lovecraft short story to music. The melody is more introspective as the narrative stares out into the unknown.
"Ring" finds things going in a more doom oriented direction. The guitars still find a tremolo picked shimmer haunting it despite this. The last song fully commits to more of a blast beat ruckus, though the vocals continue the expected croon that keeps this marginally more grounded in what this project does. Upon hearing this song a second time, it feels like his vocals are holding the constant amid the chaos summoned by the instruments around him. I will round this album up to a 10 and see how it grows on me. This album drops September 22nd on Svart Records.
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