"Fossil Gardens" is the sixth full-length studio album by Greek progressive metal act Hail Spirit Noir. The album was released through Agonia Records in June 2024. It´s the successor to "Mannequins" from September 2021 and although Hail Spirit Noir haven´t returned in the sextet lineup who recorded their fourth full-length studio album "Eden in Reverse" (2020), they have returned in rock group format with drums, guitars, bass, keyboards/synths, and vocals. The reason for mentioning this is that "Mannequins" was an experimental synthwave release featuring only the (at the time) two keyboardists of the group and lead vocalist Cons Marg.
"Mannequins" was always meant to be a one-off experiment, and "Fossil Gardens" sees Hail Spirit Noir returning to their psychedelic/progressive black metal roots. We do get a little bit of "Mannequins'" sound and melodies as opening track "Starfront Promenade" features select melodic themes from the "Mannequins" title track. It´s pretty interesting to hear what was originally a synth pop track transformed into a progressive black metal song, but it says a lot about the eclectic and adventurous nature of Hail Spirit Noir.
While "Starfront Promenade" a bit deceivingly opens "Fossil Gardens" with a mellow melancholic clean vocal section, and there are several other moments on the album which belong in psychedelic/progressive rock/metal territory, "Fossil Gardens" is actually one of the harder edged and most black metal leaning albums yet from Hail Spirit Noir. At least when they play harder edged sections. There´s bite and black metal snarling and aggression (and even blast beat sections) here which are sharper and more caustic/chaotic sounding than what we´ve normally been treated to on the preceding releases from the band. The atmosphere is often epic in scope (almost symphonic black metal styled at times), but just as soon turns melancholic or psychedelic. The many tremolo picked melancholic guitar melodies are just gorgeous and feel massive, leaving an intense impact on the listener.
When your ears get adjusted to this more extreme black metal style, "Fossil Gardens" is still unmistakably the sound of Hail Spirit Noir (...and it´s not that extreme), and it´s an incredibly well crafted release. The sound production is top notch, the performances showcase high level musicianship on all posts, and the songwriting is eclectic, adventurous, and intriguing. It´s the kind of the album you can listen to many times and find new details everytime. If they weren´t already one of the leaders of progressive/psychedelic black metal, this album would surely lift them to that status. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.