The scientific community wants you to believe evolution comes over long periods of time. Millions of years from the sea to the land, millions more from ape to man. Thankfully we don’t have to wait so long in music, and Hail Spirit Noir bare that fact out. Over the course of just over a decade the Greek progressive black metal outfit have gone from traditional (if slightly experimental) atmospheric black metal to Enslaved-style progressive metal to straight up synth soundtrack mavens and the new organic blend of sound that embody their latest album Fossil Gardens. I hit the Randomizer on my Discogs account and came back with Mayhem in Blue, the band’s third full length and breakout album. Listening back to it now I’m finding all the things I love about the genre, its permeability (despite certain bands insistence black metal remain “pure” whatever that means), and willingness to find drama and grace in the weirdest of places. It’s been too long since I heard this album, so I’m happy to set it down here.

The opening bass drive of “I Mean You Harm” gives off huge shades of gothic rock – there are moments when I could mistake this for more recent bands like Unto Others or The Wraith, but then those vocals comes in, and the the keyboards get the circus vibe going and we’re in mid-period Enslaved territory with a twist. The production is fantastic: wide and clear thanks to the band dialing down the distortion to let the strings ring out more and give some real depth to the music. Percussion rings across the soundstage and a quick check of my vinyl reminded me that yeah: the band were working in trio format at this time. No wonder I dig it so much. The title track also leads with bass, and it’s a more menacing, progressive number, the keyboards leading the melody. By the time the vocals kick in, the song takes a martial stance, prominent snare and percussive blasts signal the battle before the metal swoops in.

“Riders To Utopia” has a distinct Doors vibe owing to the organ that opens the track. It’s another indicator that Hail Spirit Noir even this early in their career were pretty fearless in ingesting and incorporating whatever influences they wanted in their music. At this point, about halfway through Mayhem In Blue I begin to notice something else: this album rocks. I mean that in a very specific way. It doesn’t see all that concerned with being heavy, or being very metal, although it is both. Despite its diversions and into other styles and its abandon with injecting some carnival atmosphere into its sound (check out the barker voice in “Lost In Satan’s Charms”), this album really just wants to rock out. It would be too easy to dismiss the band as an Enslaved clone – I love those crazy Norwegians who basically set the template for mixing your 70s prog with black metal, but their last half dozen albums sound so similar they blend together in a fog.

For better or for worse, each Hail Spirit Noir album has its own identity. The never really sounded like Mayhem in Blue again, and while that’s kind of a shame (I think this might be my favorite HSN album), it’s always a trip seeing where they’re going to take their sound next.¹

¹ If you want to know where they go next, I actually reviewed 2020’s Eden in Reverse and 2024’s Fossil Gardens over at Nine Circles.