HAIL SPIRIT NOIR — Pneuma (review)

HAIL SPIRIT NOIR — Pneuma album cover Album · 2012 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Pneuma" is the debut full-length studio album by Greek progressive extreme metal act Hail Spirit Noir. The album was released through code666 in March 2012. Hail Spirit Noir features three members of Greek avant garde/post-black metal act Transcending Bizarre?.

The music on the album is in quite an eclectic progressive extreme metal style, that may be somewhat rooted in black metal but travels far beyond the usual boundaries of the genre and greatly challenges the genre characteristics of that style. Warm vintage sounding keyboards/organ, progressive song structures, 70s hard rock influences, psychadelic elements, a blackened rock´n´roll touch (just listen to the main riff in "Against the Curse, We Dream" or "Haire Pneuma Skoteino") and just a general playfullness that´s greatly charming. A band like Enslaved comes to mind, but Hail Spirit Noir has a kind of freakshow/dark carnival atmosphere present in their music that is far removed from the more serious sounding Norwegians. The vocals on "Pneuma" are, in addition to the adventurous instrumental part of the music, one of the great assets of the album. the blackened raspy harsh type vocals and the commanding powerful clean vocals are both delivered with great conviction and skill.

The album features 6 tracks distributed over a 36:57 minutes of playing time, so it´s safe to say it´s not a very long album. I´d take quality over quantity any day though and there´s plenty of quality here to justify the relatively short playing time. "Pneuma" is simply an enjoyable album from beginning to end (the only exception being the 4 minute ambient/noise ending to "Into the Gates of Time", which to my ears is wasting precious playing time). A 4.5 star (90%) rating is fully deserved.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Traumatica Metalcore
NO GUERRA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Within the Visceria Death Metal
NECKBREAKKER
Buy this album from MMA partners
EP 1 Sludge Metal
CHAOTIC AGGRESSION
Buy this album from MMA partners
Songs of Blood and Mire Black Metal
SPECTRAL WOUND
Buy this album from MMA partners
Everything Hurts And I'm Dying Atmospheric Sludge Metal
NEGATIVE BLISS
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Origin Of Infinity - Chronosphere (OFFICIAL LYRIC VIDEO)
ORIGIN OF INFINITY
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Kingdom of Heaven - “Pleasures of Pain”
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
Bosh66· 1 day ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Sanctuary [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 18 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Farewell [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 18 days ago
DAWN OF REVENGE - Curtain of Death - [official music video]
DAWN OF REVENGE
Bosh66· 18 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed