Album of the week: Gehenna - Seen Through the Veils of Darkness (The Second Spell)

 

To the idea behind the album of the week, go here.  

Having finished the endlessly exhaustive and thorough Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, I stumbled across Gehena, which the book rightly described as one of the early Norwegian representative of symphonic black metal. Being a sucker for that early era of the 2nd wave and in particular for that little niche, I couldn't resist and was richly rewarded. The album is very much in the vein of both Emperor's and Dimmu Borgir's first record - black metal embellished with synth and orchestra parts and even moments of clean vocals. As mentioned above, I am easy pray for that kind of music and I loved it. Though of course not all songs are classics, the album flowed nicely, carried by an epic atmosphere.

Standout tracks: the rocky (and of early Bathory & Venom) "A Witch is Born", the blasting and freezing "The Mystical Play of Shadows" and the dynamically interesting "A Myth..." (which at times sounds slightly like mid-to-late Immortal).