Hersir – Hateful Draugar from the Underground

In my review of the 2023 demo ‘Hateful Draugar’ by Hersir, I lauded the heavy pummeling sound, and drew paralels with Behexen mixed with Mayhem, Emperor and 90’s Scandinavian Black Metal. Now, nearly 2 years later it’s time to revisit the band as they are set to release their debut album, ‘Hateful Draugar from the Underground’.

Now to come clean straight away, the comparison to Behexen that I so evidently heard on the demo is maybe not as apparent on the full-length. Sure, I see my point in the violent propulsive force of the pummeling drums of for instance the title track and ‘Purification by Fire’, as well as the throaty vocals. But even though all songs from the ‘Hateful Draugar’ demo make their return, the overlap seems a bit less clear.  Most likely it’s the sharper guitar sound mixed with the more prominent place of the keyboards that make the difference on ‘Hateful Draugar from the Underground’. These balance changes allow the Pagan elements to shine much more clearly, revealing a sound based on the fundaments laid by Enslaved and Darkthrone, as well early Satyricon and Emperor. The results: fierce and harsh, riff-driven Black Metal with groove and a touch of melancholy.

After a short into, the record blows out of the gates with the title track, a violent force with atmosphere-enhancing keys and excellent lead riffs. The somewhat guttural snarls are utterly convincing and add a level of brutality on top of the fragility that the keys provide, something that is more obvious is a midpaced and more epic and dreamy track like ‘The Ironclad Fighters of Hjaðningavíg’. ‘Valgaldr’ is another ferocious track, but the twisting tempo pace and subtle subcutaneous melody are equally noteworthy. This balance between subtle beauty and pure ferocity is evident in ‘Purification by Fire’ as well, while ‘Blood Runs from the Hörgr’ is not only catchy, it also sounds menacing. A few tracks offer a little bit of a breather: ‘The Fiddler’ is a Pagan midtempo song that is mostly centred around Dissection-like riffs. And with ‘Divinations at the Old Springs’ the band closes the album in a manner that creeps towards atmospheric Black Metal.

Hersir does a splendid job at balancing violent and pummeling Black Metal with a Pagan atmosphere and leading melodies. Outside maybe one or two tracks that can’t keep up (‘Walking the Way of Giants’ just feels like it doesn’t go anywhere), it’s the blend of intensity and beauty that is impressive about this debut album. Comes recommended if you like the idea of mixing the earliest outputs of Enslaved, Emperor and Darkthrone, and yes, I’m sticking with it, a dash of the utter barbarity of later Behexen.