Hail Conjurer – Ouroboros Lust

The multi-talented Harri Kuokkanen is a restless person with a clear excess of creativity, if he’s not busy with some of his other bands, he seems to dedicate all his time to this one-man project, Hail Conjurer. Besides an impressive amount of demo’s, (split) EP’s and collaborations, Kuokkanen presents us with his seventh full-length album: ‘Ouroboros Lust’.

Just like last year’s ‘Earth Penetration’ Kuokkanen takes us on a deep dive into the deepest and darkest corners of his musical mind. The slow and droning bass-heavy Black Metal is heavily interspersed with spacey passages and otherworldly experience, making Hail Conjurer an increasingly authentic and unique entity. The album feels like an ongoing naturally flowing of tidal waves of rhythms and overall emotions. The impressive opener (following a nearly two-minute intro), is a perfect example of this, its lingering tempo and humming keyboards underpinning the music, swelling sharply each time and then dying away somewhat into the background. This tidal-like movement seems to keep on going and going, resulting in an incantatory hypnosis. Increasingly, this phenomenon is starting to become the core of Hail Conjurer. It already manifested itself clearly on ‘Earth Penetration’ too, even more so than on previous works, but Kuokkanen seems more and more able to focus on stirring up the tension, working towards a certain climax. Just listen, for instance, to ‘Two Stars’, a track propelled by roaring bass guitar and a droning wall of synths. Like ‘Earth Penetration’, ‘Ouroboros Lust’ ends with a grand apotheosis, but this time Kuokkanen takes an even bigger approach and makes it last a whopping 17 minutes (half the album’s playing time). Droning and dreamy electronics, subtle piano and unadulterated noise combine to form a crackling ending.

That Kuokkanen was a creative mind and a gifted musician was already no secret, but on ‘Ouroboros Lust’ he has clearly outdone himself. Again, this is no easy listening material, but for the enthusiast (or go-getter) a world of audial splendour unfolds. Needless to say, this is not for the usual weekend-Black Metaller who prefers to stick to his standard Black Metal outfit made up of Darkthrone and Immortal, let alone for the average Watain listener, to properly appreciate Hail Conjurer you shouldn’t be averse to a dose of Power Electronics, Noise, Drone and Lo-Fi Black Metal.