Seven years. Seven long years since Hecate Enthroned last graced us with new material, and the wait – as it turns out – has been entirely, emphatically worth it. The Corpse Of A Titan, A Lament Long Buried is the band’s seventh full-length, and on the strength of this record alone it stands as one of the finest things they have ever put their name to.
Run through the entire discography and it is there, unwavering in its commitment to orchestral darkness intertwined with savage black metal fury. Those sweeping symphonic passages married to razor-sharp tremolo riffs and A commanding vocal presence – it makes no apology for its theatrical grandiosity, and why should it. This is the very essence of what made British symphonic black metal such a force in the late 90s.
Once again produced by the band alongside Dan Abela, who also handled mixing and mastering, The Corpse Of A Titan sounds absolutely enormous. Every element breathes – the orchestrations are genuinely cinematic without overwhelming the metal foundation, and the guitars cut through with precision. The production serves the songs rather than drawing attention to itself, and that is exactly what you want from extreme metal of this calibre.
Lyrically the album plants its flag firmly in ancient British myths and legends – Welsh folklore, Celtic spirits, peat bog sacrifice, sacred woodland – and the thematic consistency gives the whole record a genuine sense of place and purpose. As Dylan Hughes puts it, these are “huge, epic, hard-hitting songs carved in the traditional Hecate Enthroned way with a menacing veil delivered with a crisp punch.” He is not wrong.
The album opens not with an assault but with an invitation. In Welsh mythology, the Adar Rhiannon are the birds of the goddess Rhiannon – creatures whose song holds power over the boundary between the living and the dead. Hecate Enthroned lean into that mythology here with layers of orchestral synths and low spoken word that draw you gradually inward rather than kicking down the door. It is atmospheric, it is deliberate, and it sets the tone for everything that follows without overstaying its welcome. Exactly what a great intro should do.
The introduction dissolves directly into the album’s first full track, Spirits Stir Within Our Ancestors Tombs and the contrast is immediate. Joe Stamps throws himself into proceedings with a commanding, extended shriek that declares his intent before the riffs have even had a chance to settle. From there the track is a statement of purpose – thunderous, orchestrally rich, and driven by a rhythm section that provides the kind of foundation you can build a cathedral on.
Once again produced by the band alongside Dan Abela, who also handled mixing and mastering, The Corpse Of A Titan sounds absolutely enormous. Every element breathes – the orchestrations are genuinely cinematic without overwhelming the metal foundation, and the guitars cut through with precision. The production serves the songs rather than drawing attention to itself, and that is exactly what you want from extreme metal of this calibre.
Lyrically the album plants its flag firmly in ancient British myths and legends – Welsh folklore, Celtic spirits, peat bog sacrifice, sacred woodland – and the thematic consistency gives the whole record a genuine sense of place and purpose. As Dylan Hughes puts it, these are “huge, epic, hard-hitting songs carved in the traditional Hecate Enthroned way with a menacing veil delivered with a crisp punch.” He is not wrong.
The album opens not with an assault but with an invitation. In Welsh mythology, the Adar Rhiannon are the birds of the goddess Rhiannon – creatures whose song holds power over the boundary between the living and the dead. Hecate Enthroned lean into that mythology here with layers of orchestral synths and low spoken word that draw you gradually inward rather than kicking down the door. It is atmospheric, it is deliberate, and it sets the tone for everything that follows without overstaying its welcome. Exactly what a great intro should do.
The introduction dissolves directly into the album’s first full track, Spirits Stir Within Our Ancestors Tombs and the contrast is immediate. Joe Stamps throws himself into proceedings with a commanding, extended shriek that declares his intent before the riffs have even had a chance to settle. From there the track is a statement of purpose – thunderous, orchestrally rich, and driven by a rhythm section that provides the kind of foundation you can build a cathedral on.
Holmes behind the kit is relentless when the song demands it, and Dylan Hughes’ bass work anchors everything with real authority. The track’s mid-section briefly steps back into something more melodic – clean guitar tones and a moment of genuine atmospheric restraint – before the storm reconvenes. The lyrical theme runs through the record like a thread: the past is never truly buried, ancient voices echo through the living, and the dead leave marks that time cannot erase. One of the album’s clear highlights.
Where the previous track charges at you, The Arcane Golem is more patient and more imposing for it. This is Hecate Enthroned operating at mid-tempo, which in their hands does not mean restrained – it means giving each element room to breathe and register properly. The guitar work from Nige Dennan and Andy Milnes is dense and deliberate, with Pete White’s keyboard arrangements weaving around the riffs rather than sitting on top of them.
Where the previous track charges at you, The Arcane Golem is more patient and more imposing for it. This is Hecate Enthroned operating at mid-tempo, which in their hands does not mean restrained – it means giving each element room to breathe and register properly. The guitar work from Nige Dennan and Andy Milnes is dense and deliberate, with Pete White’s keyboard arrangements weaving around the riffs rather than sitting on top of them.
Stamps prove just as effective at lower registers here as he is unleashing full-throated shrieks elsewhere, and the interplay between vocal styles keeps the track from ever feeling one-dimensional. Lyrically the song presents nature as something animate and intelligent, and the music matches that sense of something vast and alive.
This is the moment on the record where Hecate Enthroned show the full range of what they are capable of, and it is genuinely impressive. Steed Of The Still Water opens with restraint – clean strings, a delicate melodic thread, and Stamps’ vocals pitched against something that sounds more like traditional folk music than black metal.
This is the moment on the record where Hecate Enthroned show the full range of what they are capable of, and it is genuinely impressive. Steed Of The Still Water opens with restraint – clean strings, a delicate melodic thread, and Stamps’ vocals pitched against something that sounds more like traditional folk music than black metal.
It is unexpected, and it works completely. From that quiet opening the track moves through several distinct phases: passages of full-tilt black metal aggression, a groove-oriented section with real rhythmic momentum, and a keyboard-led stretch that would not sound out of place on a film score. The thematic concern is human arrogance and the destruction that pride invites, and the compositional ambition mirrors the subject matter. If one track on this album is going to convert an uncommitted listener, my money is on this one.
The pace shifts entirely here. Pwca – a shape-shifting trickster spirit from Celtic tradition – is the album’s most atmospheric and measured piece, built around piano, hushed guitar, and the kind of whispered spoken word delivery that belongs in folklore by firelight. Where the surrounding tracks push and drive, this one reflects and recedes.
The pace shifts entirely here. Pwca – a shape-shifting trickster spirit from Celtic tradition – is the album’s most atmospheric and measured piece, built around piano, hushed guitar, and the kind of whispered spoken word delivery that belongs in folklore by firelight. Where the surrounding tracks push and drive, this one reflects and recedes.
The lyrical imagery deals with autumn, with seasons turning, with the earth drawing everything back into itself. Some listeners will find this too much of a gear change, and I understand that reaction, but for my money it is exactly the right compositional decision at the album’s midpoint. Give the listener a moment to surface before taking them back under.
Released ahead of the album, and it still hits with full force in context. Deathless In The Dryad Glade opens with something ominous and slow – guitar and keys circling each other, the sense of something approaching – before erupting into some of the most ferocious playing on the record.
Released ahead of the album, and it still hits with full force in context. Deathless In The Dryad Glade opens with something ominous and slow – guitar and keys circling each other, the sense of something approaching – before erupting into some of the most ferocious playing on the record.
The concept here, as Stamps has described it, is being led astray by malevolent woodland spirits and the permanence of the transformation that follows – cosmic horror with a specifically British mythological flavour. The second half of the track opens up into something genuinely cinematic; all scale and darkness, and Stamps’ performance throughout is one of his best moments on the album.
The album’s lead single, A Gallery Of Rotting Portraits is still one of the record’s finest moments. Dylan Hughes has explained the concept: the peat bogs of ancient Britain, bodies like Lindow Man preserved for centuries, used here as a metaphor for devotion stripped of its power – ritualised belief unearthed and found hollow.
The album’s lead single, A Gallery Of Rotting Portraits is still one of the record’s finest moments. Dylan Hughes has explained the concept: the peat bogs of ancient Britain, bodies like Lindow Man preserved for centuries, used here as a metaphor for devotion stripped of its power – ritualised belief unearthed and found hollow.
The music translates that jarring disconnect into something that moves between blackened aggression, keyboard passages of real orchestral weight, and a gothic-tinged slower section that lands with real impact. Back-to-back with Deathless In The Dryad Glade, this is a stretch of the album that keeps the second half moving at full momentum. I have listened to this track more times than I can count since its release and it gives up new details every time.
A sacred place where beauty and decay exist side by side, where the natural world marks its own slow rhythms against the permanence of stone – that is the thematic territory of The Boreal Monastery, and the music is equal to the image. This is one of the album’s longer tracks and earns every second of its runtime. The arrangement pulls between raw force and something more considered, and Hecate Enthroned navigate that balance with the kind of confidence that only comes from three decades of doing exactly this. A strong penultimate track.
A sacred place where beauty and decay exist side by side, where the natural world marks its own slow rhythms against the permanence of stone – that is the thematic territory of The Boreal Monastery, and the music is equal to the image. This is one of the album’s longer tracks and earns every second of its runtime. The arrangement pulls between raw force and something more considered, and Hecate Enthroned navigate that balance with the kind of confidence that only comes from three decades of doing exactly this. A strong penultimate track.
And the album closes as it should – on a grand, sweeping, fully committed note. Dennan and Milnes combine on riff work that hits with real physicality, while White’s keyboards give the track scope and the rhythm section drives it home. There is significant layering in the arrangement – Into A Vale Of Endless Snow is a track that rewards headphones and proper volume – and the way everything builds toward the closing passage feels genuinely earned rather than imposed. A monumental ending to a monumental record
Is this going to convert anyone previously unmoved by symphonic black metal? Almost certainly not – and that is fine. This is a record made for the people who already understand why Hecate Enthroned matter, and for that audience it delivers in every possible way.
Is this going to convert anyone previously unmoved by symphonic black metal? Almost certainly not – and that is fine. This is a record made for the people who already understand why Hecate Enthroned matter, and for that audience it delivers in every possible way.
Joe Stamps continues to prove himself one of the finest vocalists currently working in this space, the rhythm section of Holmes and Hughes is ironclad throughout, and the twin guitar work of Dennan and Milnes strikes that perfect balance of melodic sophistication and raw aggression that has defined the band at their very best.
The Corpse Of A Titan, A Lament Long Buried is not just a welcome return. It is a career statement. 9/10
The Corpse Of A Titan, A Lament Long Buried is not just a welcome return. It is a career statement. 9/10
