Review HEXVESSEL ‚Polar Veil‘

‚Polar Veil‘ is the sixth album from Hexvessel and Mat McNerney managed for another time to give the current release an extra twist. Relying on the trademarks Hexvessel offer a blend of various genres. Black metal, folk, doom and rock; it all finds a spot in the eight songs that made it on the album.

What strings them together is the deep feeling of melancholia.

Nothing on ‚Polar Veil‘ has an embedded eaae. Each of the songs carries the weight of the world, manifested by songs like the majestic but gloomy ‚Listen to the River‘. Whatever the river tells, it isn‘t a happy story.

The artwork reflects the basic mood of the album very well. The big black ghost circles above your head and puts a shadow on your soul; always prepared to pick you. That‘s how the album impacts the listeners. Each of these eight odes to darkness circles in your mind, ready to impact your inner center. Take ‚Cabin in Montana‘. Blackened and equipped with a lot of intensity the song slowly crawls into your mind, supported by an almost hypnotic expression.

Mc Nerney recorded the album in winter 2022 in a cabin in the middle of the woods. This explains the artwork and to a certain extend is also reflected in the music. Darkness and the call of nature is what defines the overall spirit of an album that doesn‘t leave you cold.

The black metal roots break loose with ‚Eternal Meadow‘.The pace and musical approach reflects the extreme version of metal which is combined with melodic clean vocals. Still, it the furious musical aspect of the song that differentiates it from most of the other tunes on the album.

After such a trip into the uptempo world of metal, Hexvessel puts the brakes on with ‚Crepuscular Creatures‘. Slow and intense, these are the trademarks of a song that reflects nature and tradition. It‘s a chilly ode that gets under the skin.

‚Polar Veil‘ spreads a blackened magic. It‘s the beauty, but also the harshness of nature, that creates the base for these eight songs. The music on this album creates some discomfort and at the same time fascinates. Slowly and without realizing it, ‚Polar Veil‘ draws you into a world that is thrilling and unpredictable at the same time.