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Rating: I'm about to review the third work of the Austrian band Hollenthon, "Opus Magnum," released in 2008, a full seven years after their last, "With Vilest of Worms to Dwell," which itself followed the debut album "Domus Mundi" from 1999.
First and foremost, how should one define Hollenthon's genre? I would say, as Sly aptly highlighted in his review, it is a blend of melodic and symphonic death metal, with power influences, extremely fast and grandiose, in which the male growl vocals, absolutely predominant, alternate with clean male and female vocals. Thus, you can already sense how the musical proposition of this band is characterized by originality and notable complexity, not being easily or immediately assimilated. That said, the previous albums managed to synthesize well into a coherent and meaningful whole, I would even say fascinating, all the elements just mentioned, and were, in my opinion, really good. This latest one essentially did not disappoint me, albeit with the necessity of a few distinctions that I will explain further here.
"Opus Magnum" comprises eight tracks of varying nature, in which traditional metal sections alternate with orchestral parts worthy of a movie soundtrack ("Of Splendid Worlds"), moments of greater delicacy (see the slow insert with female vocals in "Son of Perdition"), and echoes of oriental music ("Misterium Babel," truly an intriguing piece). The album's merits are undoubtedly a sense of great epicness that rarely slips into the cloying (a danger, as we know, inherent in the symphonic genre), combined with an impression of dark unease that grips the listener and irresistibly drags them into a peculiar world. Compared to its predecessor, "Opus Magnum" aims (as I believe the name itself intends to indicate!) to be more bombastic and insistent, but also darker and harsher, less "easy-listening" (pardon the expression, perhaps not suitable to the genre!), and succeeds completely. However, this shift has negative aspects as well: "Opus Magnum" is less varied in proportion to its predecessor, and perhaps less surprising. It is indeed true that the tracks in this album, as in the previous ones, have different souls and varied components, as highlighted above, but ultimately they seem more similar to each other than in "With Vilest...," perhaps precisely due to the predominance of the orchestral part and the constantly "driven" rhythms.
Nonetheless, a great band and a great album, to which I give 4 stars.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 On the Wings of a Dove (05:00)
Ravishing children in perilous times
Mother of harlots recanting her vice
Maelstroms...On the wings of a dove
Innocence lost
In for the kill
Galloping thunder waving its sword
Brother to Death in darkness is born
Perish...In the bludgeoned presence of foes
Innocence lost
In for the kill
No glory for sorrows
No solace in harlots
No sunlight in shadows
No comfort embracing the dead
Fiery red fury unleashing its might
Drowning the laughter of ages to come
Silence...As the megatons fall
Ashes to ash
Dust turns to dust
Nuclear winters yearning for dawn
Stealing the life out of every last breath
Vanish...In the mist of a gangrenous gaze
Ashes to ash
Dust turns to dust
No whispering sorrows
Find comfort in harlots
Unveiling the horrors
Consumed by conflict and strife
And now as the trees start to tremble
Deepening damnation, the rolling bell
Running with wolves, moribund consripts are waiting to die
Lest cowards may horde the sunset that fades in the west
Ashes, ashes, ashes
Dust turn to dust
02 To Fabled Lands (05:53)
In the path of good fortune
Yet another leads astray
In the midst of abundance
Woeful songs sung in vain
On a hill fervid cavalier
Spills no blood upon his scales
Weighs the flesh of my brother
Weighs the flesh of my foe
Hearts cursed with hunger
And the hollow gaze of fear
Grieving souls this dreadful hour
Barren lands spread to the north
Blind as the vulture that its final feast awaits
Judgement passed deliverance lies morose
Futile demise, thirsting swallows are singing my praise
Singing my praise
Death throes escaping the silence of untimely death
Judgement passed, deliverance etched in stone
Carry my corpse far beyond to fabled lands
To fabled lands
In fields of famine
In fields of dread
Forsaken reapers
Harvest emptiness
Flight takes the swallow
To journey's end
Singing their last dirges
To immortal stars flying high
Children
Shadows of their graves
Watch them die
Wistful
Winds of staid regrets
Hear their cries
Brethren
Fleeing memories
Pass them by
Sullen
Darkness blinds the sky
Darkened soul
In the path of good fortune
Yet another leads astray
In the midst of abundance
Woeful songs sung in vain
On a hill fervid cavalier
Spills no blood upon his scales
Weighs the flesh of my brother
Weighs the flesh of my foe
Hearts cursed with hunger
And the hollow gaze of fear
Grieving souls this dreadful hour
Barren lands spread to the north
03 Son of Perdition (04:52)
Dreadful visions
Of seas turning black
Silent conquests masked
In mortal white
Rolling thunder
Mountains of brass
Marching one by one
To steal the light
Howling mongrels
Forewarning doom
Seeping poisons
From the serpent's kiss
One-eyed liars
Spewing at the mouth
False pretences linger
Hiding in the clouds
The deciever
Sowing seeds of death
The apocrypha
The deciever
Digging endless graves
Reaping fallacies
Dying embers
Burning at both ends
Blind indifference
Gorging promises
Fragrant sorrows
Weeping to the wind
Blissful ignorance
Until time stands still
Lonesome solace
Riding out the storm
Fearless paupers
Stand on shallow ground
Fading shimmer
Dueling beasts of vice
Stoic hopefuls battle
Scrambling at dawn
The deciever
Digging endless graves
Reaping fallacies
The destroyer
Rising in the East
For the last crusade
Light is fading
Worlds collide
In the last hour
As words become lies
In darkly worlds
With wielding swords
Wild beasts await Remorse and Sin
Death's angels freed
From Hades' dark side
Damned be the children, cursed the land
Between two worlds
Where Death lurks near
A wailing song to Fate's last breath
A valiant steed
A crown and bow
Son of perdition and false pretence
From blackened seas
Ascending dead
In chains their souls
In flight their pride
(Death lurks the corners of the earth)
And one by one
In endless demise
Relive their death with no reprise
(Son of perdition and false pretence)
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