Quote:
I don't know what the future of Hail Spirit Noir will be. They may go all Ulver on us by ditching metal completely and follow the path of the bonus synthwave version of "Incense Swirls".

Quote:
Expect no metal or rock instrumentation, since the music is reminiscent of '80s horror movie soundtracks and marks a full-blown & daring plunge into a synthwave-meets-sci-fi pop environment.

Written by nikarg on 22.05.2021 at 16:54




I added some additional info to the news post. This will not be a metal album.

Quote:
Expect no metal or rock instrumentation, since the music is reminiscent of '80s horror movie soundtracks and marks a full-blown & daring plunge into a synthwave-meets-sci-fi pop environment.

Written by nikarg on 22.05.2021 at 16:54

Quoting myself from the last paragraph of my review of Eden In Reverse.

Quote:
I don't know what the future of Hail Spirit Noir will be. They may go all Ulver on us by ditching metal completely and follow the path of the bonus synthwave version of "Incense Swirls".

I added some additional info to the news post. This will not be a metal album.

Quote:
Expect no metal or rock instrumentation, since the music is reminiscent of '80s horror movie soundtracks and marks a full-blown & daring plunge into a synthwave-meets-sci-fi pop environment.

Written by Nejde on 22.05.2021 at 18:12

I love this! After metal, synthwave is my other favourite kind of music so when one of my favourite metal bands choose to step into synthwave... it's just a hallelujah moment since they've proven that the can handle it with the Incense Swirls Synthwave Remix.

Written by nikarg on 22.05.2021 at 18:38

I like synthwave too (most of the 80s kids naturally do, I guess) but I am a little fed up with all the 80s craze tbh. In any case, I trust HSN to nail it because everything they have done so far is awesome. I would prefer it to be a one-off though.

Written by nikarg on 22.05.2021 at 18:38

I like synthwave too (most of the 80s kids naturally do, I guess) but I am a little fed up with all the 80s craze tbh. In any case, I trust HSN to nail it because everything they have done so far is awesome. I would prefer it to be a one-off though.

Written by Desha on 22.05.2021 at 22:33

Written by nikarg on 22.05.2021 at 18:38

I like synthwave too (most of the 80s kids naturally do, I guess) but I am a little fed up with all the 80s craze tbh. In any case, I trust HSN to nail it because everything they have done so far is awesome. I would prefer it to be a one-off though.

I was pretty fed up with it very early on already, and it's been going for years.... Also I think the synthwave stuff never really sticks in my mind, what do you guys like about it?

Written by Desha on 22.05.2021 at 22:35

Relevant: https://thehardtimes.net/blog/uh-oh-that-band-you-like-just-discovered-the-80s/

Written by nikarg on 23.05.2021 at 01:08

Written by Desha on 22.05.2021 at 22:35

Relevant: https://thehardtimes.net/blog/uh-oh-that-band-you-like-just-discovered-the-80s/

I laughed so hard with this. Thanks

In the case of HSN, I feel they already had a retro-loving psychedelic sound so I was not so excited to hear that they were going '80s on Eden In Reverse. Then I heard "Automata 1980" and the album in general, and it made me shut up. They are a band that know how to write good music so I am not worried one bit about which direction they take. If they decide to do synthwave, I am hopeful that it will be some of the best synthwave around. For all I care, they can do tech-death as long as it is good.

Written by Nejde on 23.05.2021 at 00:48

For me I always liked electronic music since I'm born in 1980 and grew up with video games. In the mid 90's my hometown of Umeå in northern Sweden became famous as the world capital of the straight edge movement and the early hardcore scene with Refused as the most prolific band emerging from of it. Around Y2K I listened to alot of psytrance before stepping over to metal. So for me the step isn't that big because the genres have gone hand in hand through my life.

The thing I like about synthwave is that it brings me back to my youth, so for me at least it's nostalgia. But I also like the melodies and lack of vocals. So it's a nice break to listen to something that's more uplifting than some of the quite harsh and brutal metal I listen too. That's why I like bands that can mix the two genres effortlessly like HSN has proven that they can. Others are The Browning and Vomitron. Another tip is to check out Electric Dragon. That's Ian Mullinger's (former guitarist of Vallenfyre) synthwave project.

Written by Desha on 23.05.2021 at 16:28

Oh I do like a lot of electronic music! Just synthwave in particular just does nothing for me. But ig it's like you said, it's a nostalgia genre. I didn't grow up in the 80s (and actually I do hate most 80s media tbh) so it's kinda just dull to me.

Written by Nejde on 23.05.2021 at 20:05

That's fair. Although synthwave is like metal, very diverse. I guess most people think of the 80's when they hear the word synthwave. Darksynth and cyberpunk have nothing in common with the 80's though so no nostalgia there. For that you have retrowave and dreamwave and then you should avoid Tommy '86 for example. Otherwise there are many good synthwave acts like Ian Mullinger's dark synth project Electric Dragon that I mentioned above. Joel Grind of Toxic Holocaust has released two synthwave albums that draws inspiration from 80's horror movies, John Carpenter and Tangerine Dreams with ambience mixed in.
On the Blood Music label you have big names like Perturbator, GosT and Dan Terminus together with bands like Kauan, Abigail Williams Master Boot Record, Wolvhammer and Öxxö Xööx. That's a lot of name dropping (sorry) but what I'm trying to say is that metal and synthwave are closer related than you might think so HSN isn't the first metal act to make that step and most likely not the last either. So there's much more than the 80's inspired synthwave to discover
And last but not least I have to mention Vredehammer's Viperous from last year where they mixed synthwave with speed and black metal and made a phenomenal album.

Written by Desha on 23.05.2021 at 20:12

I'm not saying they're not really related, I'm saying I don't like it hahahaha
I think it's pretty closely related, tons of metal people seem to love synth wave and they always appear on metal festivals as well.

I don't really get why you say Cyberpunk has nothing to do with the 80s when it's all 80s and nothing else kinda? Like, I can't imagine something MORE stuck in the 80s than cyberpunk is currently. Or does the music you mean have nothing to do with the fiction genre?