Winter weather has arrived here in the mountains where I live. The air is biting, a thick blanket of snow covers the ground and a low cloud hangs just above the trees. This can only mean one thing…it’s Black Metal season, baby! The debut full-length, ‘A Wild Lament’, from the U.S. Black Metal outfit Hinterland perfectly captures a cold, remote landscape. Piloted by the entities behind Plainchant, A.R. and D.C. have once again shown their prowess in atmospheric song writing. This time taking a more dense and grounded sounding approach compared to the more cutting, synth laden sounds of Plainchant’s ‘Frontier’.
While very atmospheric with a sort of foggy and ethereal production, the album is steeped in classic Finnish Black Metal energy. Tracks like ‘A Wild Lament’ and ‘Scars of the Landscape’ especially stand out and create a very similar sound to Satanic Warmaster or even Horna with the drama turned up a notch. The vocals are distant, lurking within a vast wall of sound. The riffs are triumphant and longing with keyboards to reinforce the more ambient sections while also assisting in points of frigid crescendo throughout the album. The drums are very well spaced and really help fill out any available sound space, creating an encompassing and melancholic mix.
If you’re a sucker for Atmospheric Black Metal I highly recommend ‘A Wild Lament’. And as stated before, the album doesn’t lack musical substance. So if the word “atmospheric” worries you, this album still has plenty to chew on especially if you are looking for a Satanic Warmaster type of sound. This is a fantastic debut from Hinterland and a good sign for what’s to come from the project.
