Hiems was started in 1996 by Italian songwriter & multi-instrumentalist Alessandro “Algol” Comerio, but in recent years he put the project on hold to instead focus on his role of bassist in Forgotten Tomb, which means it has been fourteen years since his last release. ‘Stranger in a Wasteland’ is his third album as the one-man black metal project, and his first with Agonia Records. I was not sure what to expect, but it certainly was not this highly commercial and easy to listen to album, as one tends to think of black metal as being raw and evil, and while this does contain elements of that, for the most part this is incredibly listenable. It is as if he has taken influences from Satyricon and decided to move in that direction, and while I cannot say if this is how he sounded when he first started out, it is certainly unusual to come across this from a one-man black metal band.

The result is something which is actually quite fun and enjoyable to listen to, which in many ways seems quite weird – are we actually supposed to smile when playing this type of metal? There are bits of this that are so commercial one could imagine hearing them on mainstream rock radio, and that does not sound right at all! Consequently this album has been causing me some issues as at times I feel this just sounds completely wrong and is not something I want to listen to as the whole concept of the genre has been turned on its head yet there is something incredibly compelling about the approach which continues to make it fascinating. In the end I decided to forget about what genre it belonged to and asked myself a very simple question, did I enjoy playing it? The answer to that is “yes”: the vocals are good, it never sounds as if there is just one person involved, and the riffs are good and strong while the production is also fresh and exciting. This may upset a lot of black metal purists, but if one can look past what we think the genre should sound like and instead concentrate on the album itself then listeners may well find something here of interest.

Rating: 7/10

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/HiemsOfficial
https://www.agoniarecords.com/