Band:	Hrizg
Album:	Anthems To Decrepitude
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	May 2011

01. The Infernal Scripture
02. I Hate
03. Ab Aeterno
04. Opposite To Light
05. Anthem To Decrepitude
06. Angercraft
07. Necrosanctum
08. Into The Caves Of Earth
09. Invierno
10. In Solitude
11. Broken Shield

"So what the hell is a Hrizg?"

Hrizg (apparently Orcish for "pain") is a one-man Spanish black metal band. It is also the name of said one man. Just to clear the air, that's the kind of creativity we're dealing with here. Now let's move on.

"So what's it sound like?"

Anthems To Decrepitude... Where to start? 1992 would be a good place: when Burzum's self-titled album was released. Raw production, dark atmosphere, primitive, intense - some of the most complimentary aspects of Burzum. But Anthems To Decrepitude? Not so much. The raw production sounds forced, not in the way that Varg purposefully recorded his material to make a stand against clean production, but in the way that Hrizg went out of his way to sound like Varg. This sets in motion a chain reaction; the atmosphere sounds forced, with the same goal in mind: sound like Burzum. There seems to be more plagiarism on this album than anything else, which totally takes away from the essence of the music.

It sounds like Varg has an ugly red-headed stepchild.

"But Troy, you can't compare some random new black metal band to the likes of Burzum. Varg's a god! A mastermind!"

Very well. On its own, Anthems To Decrepitude is a new old school black metal album that simply lacks flow and identity. Hrizg doesn't seem to be confident in a specific style, be it too fast, too slow, overly ambient, not ambient enough - it's all over the place. For something of an anorexic release, there is an awful lot of fat to carve through to get to the skeleton. At times it's almost painful how far away from any notable direction this album goes, despite attempting a tried and trve sound. There needed to be a lot less emphasis on worshiping Norway's original black metal scene and more focus on using that dark atmosphere to enhance the listening experience.

The songwriting is simplistic, the riffs seem to be trapped in a box and the few ideas that make an effort to present themselves are unfortunately smothered by the obtuse production. The story of each song takes too long to tell, and the most potent creations dry up before they rear their ugly head into what should be a more captivating climax.

After repeated listens, the sense of evil created by the dark atmosphere begins to wear thin and what you're left with is a pallid 50-minute journey into nothing more than a black hole.

"This is boring. I want to hear more about Burzum!"

Of course there is more to be said of Varg and Hrizg. Just listen to "Broken Shield": aka the Dauði Baldrs reject. That should lay to rest any belief that Hrizg is by any means an original concept. I mean, who tries to rip off Dauði Baldrs?


MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/hrizg