Although I had never heard of Hettend Tapes before recently, this collective/label has a number of interesting bands under its wing. For me, it was Kasturn’s recently released rehearsal tape that pointed me in this label’s direction. But besides Kasturn, this new trio, completely unknown to me, is also a pleasant discovery. Fields Of Agony, as a power trio, delivers some straight forward yet memorable Raw Black Metal.
In less than ten minutes, Fields Of Agony shows off their skill with two tracks that evidently benefit from its raw rehearsal sound. As is actually the case with Kasturn, this band’s sound is mainly built upon good riffs and strong melodies. The old school atmosphere solely relies on guitars and dynamic, that clearly shows that atmospheric Black Metal isn’t necessarily always in need of keyboards. On the contrary even, I personally admire the bands that convey the same sort of feeling, but just with the bare minimum of resources and instruments. This is just three people in a rehearsal room, giving it their all.
This reminds strongly of the Black Metal from the mid to late 90’s and around the turn of the millennium. The melancholic atmosphere fits very well to the misanthropic and gloomy feel of the first bands that built this particular brand of Black Metal. If you have a soft spot for bands like Moonblood, Weltmacht, early Satanic Warmaster and Judas Iscariot, this is definitely a band to keep an eye on.
Although it’s not entirely clear, there seems to be some kind of announcement on Hettend Tapes’ Bandcamp that these two songs might be released physically on cassette. I certainly hope so.
