Band:	Hegemon
Album:	Sidereus Nuncius
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	October 2021

01. Heimarménè
02. Mellonta Tauta
03. Shamanic Cosmocrator
04. Ascendency Of Astral Chaos
05. Shape Shifting Void
06. Ad Astra Per Obscura
07. Black Hole Womb
08. Your Suffering, My Pillars

Astronomy as a theme + raw black metal that flirts with black'n'roll, but with a delectable dissonant guitar tone and an occasional taste for progressive rhythms? Say no more. Hegemon hail from Montpellier, France and have been active since 1996. Somehow they have been completely overlooked by yours truly but album number five is the one that has changed everything.

Sidereus Nuncius opens in a rather expected and traditional way with "Heimarménè". The goal is to establish the style and set expectations for things to come, which it does brilliantly. It quickly turns into a masterpiece of inventive black metal that is hard to dismiss. I did my homework and listened to some of their older albums; the modern production is a step up from their previous releases. The monochord yet super clean and contained aspect of the production here actually helps the case of the music. The venomous vocals are alive and on top of everything. The insane drumming is solidified in the mix while the guitars are highlighted. You may be asking about the bass. Well, it is mostly taking a back seat when things are heated and ominous, which happens to be rather often. However once the atmosphere lightens up and the space between beats expands, the bass also clearly shines such as on the atmospheric parts of "Mellonta Tauta" or on "Ascendency of Astral Chaos".

Truth be told, this album takes a few astute listens to digest fully. However, it is worth the effort. The ambivalent nature of it is mildly confusing at first hand but quickly rewarding. The best way I could describe it is that it is on the edge of being a progressive kind of black metal yet it is deeply rooted in splendid kvlt black metal darkness. This falls somewhere between Necrophobic, Dark Funeral, and Dark Fortress.

It is really hard to express properly what Sidereus Nuncius is all about musically. The theme is obvious. One word that keeps bubbling back up to the surface of this black marsh is creativity. The album flows ferociously for close to 45 minutes with key passages of atmospheric build-up and quite a handful of memorable moments interspersed in a maelstrom of aggression and emotional discharge. To form your own opinion, I invite you to pick any track really. The songwriting is such that all of the songs have that charming "je ne sais quoi" that rarely emanates from modern black metal. Yet it is there in full display. The spot-on production and inspired trve black / black'n'roll songwriting make this album a special little gem. This is definitely one of my favourite discoveries from 2021. Aim for the stars.