Review by Alain on March 29, 2020.

Middle East is not known for being an easy place to play any kind of modern music, not to mention metal and, for obvious reasons, any subgenre closely related to extreme metal. The combination of particularly conservative societies and the extremely restrictive applications of religious beliefs, in this case the Muslim religion, make truly difficult to have an active scene. But even in the hardest scenario’s passion, talent and inspiration can arise from the shadows and show to us that good music can appear in any place. Iran, or Persia if you prefer, is a country with a vast heritage, both historically and culturally, and it is known that its inhabitants are usually quite cultured people. But it is surprising how a single person can almost create a little scene around him. This is the case of Harpag Karnik, the young Persian behind the excellent projects like Forelunar, Ethereldine or the band I am reviewing right now, Erancnoir. All these projects play atmospheric black metal with distinctive touches and characteristics, but all of them are focused on a very well executed and emotionally intense atmosphere. His creativity seems to be unstoppable as he has released a healthy amount of releases in only two years, which is undoubtedly pretty impressive.

This time is the moment to review one of his most impressive personal projects, Erancnoir, which released its third and homonymous album just one year after the debut, which is truly amazing. I have known one-man bands which have a similar or even higher rate of releases, but Erancnoir is, without any doubt, on the top in terms of quality. Erancnoir doesn't differ too much from its previous works and like happened with the sophomore work Frostfallen, it contains two and remarkably long tracks with a combined length of around forty minutes. Both tracks have similar structures, which try to explore the darkest realms of atmospheric black metal. Keys play an important role, but they are not overused. For example, in the first track entitled 'Erancnoir' they initiate the track with a mystic intro, which immerses you in a vast and desolated landscape. This initial calm section is abruptly broken by a furious wall of guitars and blasting drums with a remarkably fast pace. This speediness is kept for a few minutes making the song quite grim, still atmospheric thanks to the accompanying keys. As mentioned, the song has a rather homogeneous structure, but it is still able of capturing the attention due to its hypnotic nature and a little changes in its rhythm. Vocals are, as expected, quite high pitched and indecipherable, but reasonably well performed. As the song slightly slows down, we can enjoy some nice touches like an accompanying guitar or keys which enrich the song and reinforce its captivating nature. The next track, 'Mehr', follows a similar path including the expected intro, this time way shorter. The initial furious part evolves to a very nice mid-tempo section, where the keys play a bigger role until the song becomes a pure ambient track. This supposes a beautiful ending for the album like the calm after the storm.

In conclusion, Erancnoirs' third instalment is another excellent piece of atmospheric black metal where structures don't vary too much, though this is not especially problematic as its great melodies and spellbinding nature are the reason behind its quality. We can only hope that Harpag with continue its impressive rate of great releases in the upcoming years.

Rating: 8.2 out of 10

Review by Alain on March 29, 2020.

Middle East is not known for being an easy place to play any kind of modern music, not to mention metal and, for obvious reasons, any subgenre closely related to extreme metal. The combination of particularly conservative societies and the extremely restrictive applications of religious beliefs, in this case the Muslim religion, make truly difficult to have an active scene. But even in the hardest scenario’s passion, talent and inspiration can arise from the shadows and show to us that good music can appear in any place. Iran, or Persia if you prefer, is a country with a vast heritage, both historically and culturally, and it is known that its inhabitants are usually quite cultured people. But it is surprising how a single person can almost create a little scene around him. This is the case of Harpag Karnik, the young Persian behind the excellent projects like Forelunar, Ethereldine or the band I am reviewing right now, Erancnoir. All these projects play atmospheric black metal with distinctive touches and characteristics, but all of them are focused on a very well executed and emotionally intense atmosphere. His creativity seems to be unstoppable as he has released a healthy amount of releases in only two years, which is undoubtedly pretty impressive.

This time is the moment to review one of his most impressive personal projects, Erancnoir, which released its third and homonymous album just one year after the debut, which is truly amazing. I have known one-man bands which have a similar or even higher rate of releases, but Erancnoir is, without any doubt, on the top in terms of quality. Erancnoir doesn't differ too much from its previous works and like happened with the sophomore work Frostfallen, it contains two and remarkably long tracks with a combined length of around forty minutes. Both tracks have similar structures, which try to explore the darkest realms of atmospheric black metal. Keys play an important role, but they are not overused. For example, in the first track entitled 'Erancnoir' they initiate the track with a mystic intro, which immerses you in a vast and desolated landscape. This initial calm section is abruptly broken by a furious wall of guitars and blasting drums with a remarkably fast pace. This speediness is kept for a few minutes making the song quite grim, still atmospheric thanks to the accompanying keys. As mentioned, the song has a rather homogeneous structure, but it is still able of capturing the attention due to its hypnotic nature and a little changes in its rhythm. Vocals are, as expected, quite high pitched and indecipherable, but reasonably well performed. As the song slightly slows down, we can enjoy some nice touches like an accompanying guitar or keys which enrich the song and reinforce its captivating nature. The next track, 'Mehr', follows a similar path including the expected intro, this time way shorter. The initial furious part evolves to a very nice mid-tempo section, where the keys play a bigger role until the song becomes a pure ambient track. This supposes a beautiful ending for the album like the calm after the storm.

In conclusion, Erancnoirs' third instalment is another excellent piece of atmospheric black metal where structures don't vary too much, though this is not especially problematic as its great melodies and spellbinding nature are the reason behind its quality. We can only hope that Harpag with continue its impressive rate of great releases in the upcoming years.

Rating: 8.2 out of 10

Review by Carl on August 20, 2023.

Aha, the black industrial techno whatever project of Magus Wampyr Daoloth and Mika from Impaled Nazarene. There seems to be no way around it, either you're on board with it, or you want to wipe your behind with it. At least that's the impression I have from it. I never had any problems with it, honestly. What they did have in my opinion is this: when they were good, they were awesome. When they were bad, you better reckon they sucked alright. But that's luckily not the case here.

As a first, it is important to state that this is barely metal to begin with. The backbone of the Diabolos sound is formed primarily by the primitive industrial sounds by pioneers such as Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly and Non, but a whiff of chauvinism is allowed on my part, because I hear the influence of Belgian acts like A Split Second, Front 242 and Suicide Commando as well. Lump in some primal techno and rave elements, and there you go. A cold, nihilistic atmosphere is created by the keyboards, with scraping sampled guitars added, underpinned by mechanical percussion. These throbbing industrial tracks plow forward at a steady marching beat, while Mika's distorted vocals spew forth all kinds of blasphemies. Reading this, one might think that this is all just a cacophony of random sounds and "Rosemary's Baby" samples cobbled together, but let me assure you that it all falls into place, and it's actually pretty, well ... danceable! Especially 'Satanic Propaganda' is pretty banging, sounding like a possessed Laibach meets the early works of Ministry and Front Line Assembly. I'd even go so far as to call this track an overlooked classic in the realm of black (metal) industrial. The only note of criticism I will make is that the sounds used here have not all aged that well, but I can't really fuss over that too much really, given the awesome music.

This is the type of stuff you probably need an open mind for to appreciate. I have a liking for electronic music, so you won't hear any peep from me, but I can easily imagine the conservative metal fan recoiling in absolute horror. To each his own, right?

And allow me to leave you with a tidbit of trivia: for the track 'Satanic Propaganda' a video was shot, with images of satanic rituals, burning crosses and so on, and whenever there was some 'satanic panic' bullshit on the news here in Belgium, the item was always accompanied by images from that video, including the close up of Mika's ugly mug. The 90's were awesome.

Rating: 8 out of 10