Review: Hail Darkness ‘Death Divine’

You can not only hear but also feel that sumptuous fuzzed-out guitar tone sound straight from the get-go as the near six-minute Luciferan Dawn kicks off the first of ten tracks from Hail Darkness, the occult rock trio whose sound is described, in their own words, as the ‘bastard daughter of doom and psychedelica’.

Death Divine is the result of the band moving to guitar and vocalist Jez’s home patch of South Carolina in the early days of the pandemic, where they began an extensive three-year recording session, and the results are extremely impressive. They have a mix of several bands, Jefferson Airplane, Black Sabbath and T-Rex to name a few, with their occult musings being highlighted in Jez’s lyrics and her vocal style have drawn comparisons to Grace Slick and in parts, Sandy Deny from Fairport Convention.

Cult Of The Serpent Risen has an awesome riff throughout but the song allows the vocal to soar high like an eagle. The rhythm is nothing too complex but addictive as hell when you listen to it and halfway in, you get the feel of a satanic ritual. It’s simply an excellent track and sets up for what follows with Hour Of The Silent Rite continuing the magical retro cosmic journey with a dreamy guitar sequence. The darkness is emphasised more on With Horns Of A Beast with the bass from Joshua and drums from Emmet shining through, delivering another massively moreish sound capturing the essence of ‘70s horror and exploitation movies.

As debut albums go, this is one hell of an entrance…

Across the album the trio are accompanied by a host of multi-instrumentalist friends, known as the Hail Darkness Coven, who help to create the expansive and exotic psychedelic sound of the band. The bass sound on Goat Of Mendes… Raise The Glass! is as spooky and as haunting as anything you’ll hear this year, or in the coming years. It is totally mesmerising, and you can sense that the song is after your soul. Coven Of The Blackened One then picks up the baton and with that ‘60s psychedelic occult feel, it laughs in your face as your soul is ripped out.

The sound that explodes out of Azarak! is nothing short of brilliant, and in an album of stunning tracks, this just edges out in front as my favourite one. It is an impeccable example of musicians working together and composing a song that is spellbinding. You get the intense riff throughout, but it doesn’t detract from the other instruments and the musical arrangement is a blissful journey into the trio’s minds and thoughts.

Up next is a happy little ditty entitled Eyes White Black Soul that almost sounds like a ‘60s American advert with the perfect housewife, husband and family, yet it has a sinister undertone, before the final track See You In Hell returns to the dark side and is driven by the haunting vocal and guitar sound which lights up the album.

As debut albums go, this is one hell of an entrance into the growing field of doom and occult based sounds that are currently available and I’m certain that this will end up on many people’s album of the year lists.

Label: Vatican Records
Band Links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram

Scribed by: Matthew Williams