Har Shatan – Manum Inicere Alicui – Album Review
Laying violent hands....
Germanic one-man black metal entity Har Shatan originally erupted from the hellish underground of blackened depravity 20 years ago, with debut full length, His Legacy, arriving in 2009.
Then all was quiet. Until now.
Emerging from the wilderness, Har Shatan’s 2nd album, Manum Inicere Alicui, picks up the mantle and delivers a faithful black metal shriek into the void once more.
Enveloped in a freezing fog of traditional black metal tropes (minimal production values, sinewy riffs etc), Manum Inicere Alicui may not bring anything ‘new’ to the market but its solemn, sombre, often funeral-like tempos add a dream-like quality to Har Shatan‘s cold, raw sounds.
With ambient interludes such as “Secret” adding textures to the unrefined clatter that surrounds them, Manum Inicere Alicui offers up a layered release which reeks of misery and pain.
The odd Tom Warrior-esque ‘Uhh’ brings a sense of nostalgia for those pining for the glory days of black metal and Har Shatan is adept at bringing back the antagonistic and arcane noise that emerged from the bleak wintery landscapes of Scandinavia all those years ago.
Suitably grim. 7/10
Har Shatan‘s Manum Inicere Alicui is due for release on 31st December 2022 via The Sinister Flame
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