Nocturnal Egg (Jordan)
À peine le temps pour les traces de griffures de cicatriser que Hekseblad relance l'assaut avec Kaer Morhen, son tout premier album en trois ans d'existence. La sauvagerie y est encore plus manifeste tant le raw black metal old-school met l'accent sur les riffs sombres, tant le chant de Bruxa se fait barbare ("The Fall of the Northern Realms"). Mais surtout les ambiances (sur la seconde piste ou sur "Master Crafted") suggèrent aussi que le monstre n'est pas celui qu'on croit. Épique, génial !
Favorite track: Kaer Morhen.
mathieu lavoie
Killer Black Metal god like riffs, beautiful added instruments(flute love the flute), Roaring vocal, Bm lover rejoice you're messiah is here
Favorite track: Kaer Morhen.
sashavonkarl74
Awaiting (still) impatiently the CD to be shipped (from the U.S.?), I am in the meantime enjoying the digital version. Hekseblad is reminiscent of the Scandinavian frosty and fast-paced melodic BM à la Dissection, Naglfar and similar bands. Highly recommended!!
Favorite track: The Taste of Ash.
Metallurgical Fire
I’m ambivalent about The Witcher, but I’m all in for this classic sounding riff heavy black metal. If you don’t love this record as a bm fan, then you need to get your sanity checked. Favorite track will change many times over. The Taste of Ash is a banger, though.
Favorite track: The Taste of Ash.
"Brokilon Boughs" edition limited to 100 copies
- 140g vinyl at 33 rpm in black poly-lined inner sleeves
-comes with 30cm x 30cm insert
- packed in a plastic sleeve
Includes unlimited streaming of Kaer Morhen
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
ships out within 5 days
edition of 100
Purchasable with gift card
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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
"Yrden Trap" edition limited to 100 copies
- 140g vinyl at 33 rpm in black poly-lined inner sleeves
-comes with 30cm x 30cm insert
- packed in a plastic sleeve
Includes unlimited streaming of Kaer Morhen
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
"Brokilon Boughs" edition limited to 100 copies
- 140g vinyl at 33 rpm in black poly-lined inner sleeves
-comes with 30cm x 30cm insert
- packed in a plastic sleeve
Includes unlimited streaming of Kaer Morhen
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
Sold Out
"Kaer Morhen" LP [2024; Lilac and Sorcery Edition]
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
LP SHIPPING DELAYED.
NOW SHIPPING SEPTEMBER.
"Lilac and Sorcery" edition limited to 100 copies
- 140g vinyl at 33 rpm in black poly-lined inner sleeves
-comes with 30cm x 30cm insert
- packed in a plastic sleeve
Includes unlimited streaming of Kaer Morhen
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
Sold Out
"Kaer Morhen" LP [2024; Yrden Trap Edition]
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
"Yrden Trap" edition limited to 100 copies
- 140g vinyl at 33 rpm in black poly-lined inner sleeves
-comes with 30cm x 30cm insert
- packed in a plastic sleeve
Includes unlimited streaming of Kaer Morhen
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
In the waning months of the cursed year 2020, as the seasons changed to the cold, dark months of winter two long time friends joined forces to create Hekseblad, a Melodic Black metal band who would soon take the underground by storm. Bruxa, a vocalist and songwriter from Michigan handles the lore and storytelling of the duo's music (aWitch's Amulet, Fanged Imp, Bruxa, Oaken Palace), while Frosk (Frog Mallet, Groaning Retch), a multi-instrumentalist and Studio owner from Massachusetts handles guitars, bass and the entire production process.
Fresh off a run of successful EP releases and a well received Split (w/ Vér and Nachtheir), American Black Metal band Hekseblad returns in 2024 with the release of their debut Full-Length “Kaer Morhen”
Drawing lyrical inspiration from the works of Andrezj Sapkowski's beloved Fantasy franchise “The Witcher” and musically recalling the days of true Black Metal glory (namely the likes of Emperor, Dissection, Gorgoroth and Obtained Enslavement), Hekseblad delivers a furious and magickal take on the sound of late 90’s Black Metal; balancing on the edge of melodic but malicious with their furious barrage of riffs and tying it together with flourishes of Symphonic sorcery conjuring a maelstrom of frozen ferocity.
credits
released April 19, 2024
Hekseblad is:
Bruxa (vocals)
Frosk (instrumentals)
All songs written and performed by Hekseblad.
All songs mixed and mastered by Sean McCormack of Funeral Frog Media.
Guest solo on Track 6 performed by Sörjande of Mourning by Morning.
Additional lyrics and lore provided by Maxx Macabre.
The Witcher; novels written by Andrzej Sapkowski.
Artwork by Aghy R Parakusuma.
Logo by @Rotting_Reign
Promotional photos by the Band themselves and Dark Magician
***
"Strong, memorable riffs weave through a dynamic combat zone of pacing and precision, with confident vocal work layered throughout."
-Moshpit Nation
"Hekseblad are a magic duo who are keeping the spirit of old school black metal alive through a well-crafted balance between homage and originality. Their passion, songwriting, and musical chops are phenomenal and obvious. Kaer Morhen is a standout record for the band, and on its own merits is one of the best black metal records you will hear in 2024."
-Noob Heavy
"The songs are elaborate and very well-written, providing rapidly changing experiences of fire and ferocity, sinister sorcery and primal seduction, imperial grandeur and unchained barbarism, ruinous despair and fleeting glory — all of them laced with memorable melodies and head-moving grooves."
-No Clean Singing
"Kaer Morhen is chock full of more great riffs and melodies than some bands have in their entire discographies. A damn fine debut, and one that may just herald the coming of the next brightest stars in black metal today."
-Nine Circles
"Hekseblad is a bit like Immortal in that sense — still true to the cult, but just plain fun to listen to. "
-Consequences Heavy
"Hekseblad has shown immense creativity with Kaer Morhen"
-Blackforje Magazine
Here's to some more cosmic metal, the Karlsruhe based outfit offers crude yet extremely well produced sound in this earlier effort.
Featuring mid-tempo cadences, occasional blast beating, high pitched shrieking essentially, the riffing has this mildly meaty, sensational over-atmospheric tilt that's always well received on my part.
The perspective of getting sucked into a wormhole had never felt better I kid you not.
Emperor and Inherits the Void in mind, you just can't skip this one. doive
Shame on me for only discovering this beast of an album now... The tags above all apply - it's powerful stuff that Serpent of Old delivers (as indeed it was way back in the myth of Eden - Gnosis, baby!). Brent Davis
Brooding black metal on Vendetta records, Svartmálm slow the genre’s core ingredients and add bracing emotional heft. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 20, 2018
