Hail Conjurer – Satanic Phenomenology

One of the most intriguing Finnish Black Metal bands definitely is Hail Conjurer, the band’s otherworldly take on Black Metal has already resulted in a considerable number of records that offer both an enthralling as well as an uncomfortable experience. The unorthodox Black Metal that became the trademark of Hail Conjurer is schizophrenic on a large and uncontrollable scale, it can be beautifully mesmerizing as well as frighteningly haunting and moreover it is both progressive and regressive at the same time.

If you chose to listen to Hail Conjurer’s back catalogue from A to Z (or, at least the last few recordings) you will notice that the band is forging an increasingly interesting musical landscape that captivates that feeling of boundless and unmanageable schizophrenia. ‘Satanic Phenomenology’ is the band’s latest feat in this path that will lead to unavoidable destruction.

The regressive element in the music is still the somewhat Ildjarnian, unpolished and hateful ugliness that functions as the main ingredient and vast fundament of basically each track – listen to ‘Katharsis for instance and try to claim otherwise. Yet, as always Hail Conjurer will not leave it at that and adds huge amounts of depth and dynamics by the use of electronics, ambient and almost drone-like doomy passages. In my review for this new albums predecessor, ‘Ouroboros Lust’ from 2023, I used the symbolic of a musical tidal wave. That very much also characterizes the music on this bass-heavy new record, it knocks you into a delirious dream that seems to flow in and out of a state of feeling in love and a nightmarish fever.

None of the band’s back catalogue has ever a straight forward matter, but even though you know that you are always in for a treat, Hail Conjurer is still able to captivate with its sheer brilliance. The freely flowing creativity and the musician’s capability to look beyond certain musical borders is something that never tires me. It seems like a miracle, really, that a song like the aforementioned ‘Katharsis’ and ‘Ritus Paganus’ (probably the band’s most elementary song in a long time) can coexist within the frames of the same album without sounding alienating. Keeping all this together reinforces the statement of Hail Conjurer’s evil schizophrenia and to that ‘Satanic Phenomenology’, both harshly sordid as well as compellingly exquisite, is the latest confirmation.