This is the 2016 album from West Yorkshire Atmospheric Black Metal trio Hryre, who took their name from the Swedish for “scream” and whose debut EP a few years earlier had no titles in English. They had changed that for this release, where they bring in influences from folk, harsh Black Metal and even Prog with some interesting results. They even use spoken word at times, which is quite removed from what one normally expects from this genre. At the time they comprised Gareth Hodgson (drums), Nathan Patchett (guitars, bass) and Rick Millington (vocals, guitars, bass), changing to a quartet after this release although I am not sure if they are still active given their FB page has not been updated in a few years, although this album and the EP is available on their Bandcamp site.

Lyrically this is a very English album, which is somewhat unusual given their presentation of being from Scandinavia, with commentary on political and cultural history, while also looking at nature and the English countryside. However, musically they are let down by the recording and production which at times is very muddy and only of demo quality, which is not what one expects, especially as they were signed to a major label of the genre when this was released. For fans of Fen and Winterfyllet in particular, this does capture a band at the beginning of their career and I am sure a second album would have demonstrated progress but so far there has not been any sign of that happening.

Rating: 6/10

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/hryreuk/
https://www.code666.net/