apanthropy

Hecate Enthroned
The Corpse of a Titan, a Lament Long Buried
M-Theory Audio
Released: May 29th, 2026

Rating: 8.5/10

“…Hecate Enthroned sticks to their guns and they deliver an album that does deserve its fair bit of attention. It’s not theatrics, it’s not grandiose buffoonery, it’s not a gimmicky sound or tonality, these songs collectively hit hard, they’re steeped in radiate dynamics and, most importantly, they’re both fun to listen to and extremely engrossing.”

Hecate Enthroned has existed, in one form or another, since 1992, appearing during the 1990s extreme metal boom, representing the long-standing English scene. First, starting off as Amethyst, before morphing to Daemonum, eventually settling on the Hecate Enthroned name in 1995. For most extreme metal fans, the band needs no detailed introduction, as they are a well-respected name in terms of symphonic, melodic, or otherwise epic black metal. Their seventh and newest album, The Corpse of a Titan, a Lament Long Buried, released May 29th through M-Theory Audio, ends a seven-year stretch of silence that has lingered since 2019’s Embrace of the Godless Aeon. Functioning as a six piece, with most of the line-up returning from the 2019 release, with a noticeable swap at drummer from Gareth Hardy to Matt Holmes, the band continues their method of execution, laying down long-form sweeping black metal that crafts expansive narratives and features immensely detailed composing.

Compared many times to Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, what Hecate Enthroned perhaps didn’t do is what these certain bands have done at this point in their careers; grossly turn down the extreme elements and dull down the edge of the composing and writing. It’s not to say bands like Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir have completely lightened up over the years, but Hecate Enthroned sticks to their guns and they deliver an album that does deserve its fair bit of attention. It’s not theatrics, it’s not grandiose buffoonery, it’s not a gimmicky sound or tonality, these songs collectively hit hard, they’re steeped in radiate dynamics and, most importantly, they’re both fun to listen to and extremely engrossing.

Production is crisp, polished, and well-pronounced. Spatial drums wrap themselves around a caliginous whirlwind of churning guitars and trumpeting keyboard passages. Vocals dart between the shrill, throat-ripping, raspy black metal screams to more conventional deep gutturals. With, at a minimum, six different instruments to blend together at any one moment, there is a concern for sonic crowding or certain audio tracks being buried or phase cancelled, but nothing of the sort occurs here, it is a surgically separated mix, and the blend allows for serious heat and massive dynamics.

‘Adar Rhiannon’ serves as a quick atmospheric introductory piece that feeds into the terminal ‘Spirits Stir Within our Ancestor’s Tombs,’ the longest track on the record, reaching past the eight-minute mark, an absolute thrill ride of riff crafting, blaring keyboards, and crushing forward-moving momentum. Thundering toms and palm-muted power chords war march alongside stringy arpeggios in the introductory phrases before the album kicks off in earnest, making a breakneck transition into ripping double-bass, absolutely triumphant screaming keyboard crescendos, and hypnotic single-note tremolo. Every band, inevitably, writes a song that sums up their very existence into one violent expression, this may be the track that does that for Hecate Enthroned. It’s a song that makes you sit down and shut the fuck up, something worth focusing your attention on. Its long-form structure and methodical direction allow for expansive emphasis on atmosphere and narrative, keyboards are present in an almost spirit-like manner, haunting the track throughout, refusing to be driven away, lacing itself between melody and rhythm, adding immense embellishment to the overall sound. In the live environment, this track would be something to behold, this is sure to turn a crowd into a frenzy.

‘Steed of the Still Water’ embodies the concept of symphonic black metal in a manner so many struggle to reach, achieving a striking balance of presence and tonality, layered melodies dance with one another in some sort of cosmic ritual. The extended introductory phrases are part of the ‘coming up’ phase of the track, before it peaks, leaving the listener with a steep and ragged ride down afterwards. There is a certain otherworldly ghostliness to the way the track unfolds. Once again, there are many moving parts working musically in conjunction with one another, it’s a fascinating thing to listen to and something to truly appreciate. The balance and the restraint that a band has to exhibit as songwriters in these types of situations is astounding. Push too hard and the sound becomes noisy, overly bombastic with no real definition, push too little and the keyboards might as well not even be there.

The shortest track on the record, ‘A Gallery of Rotting Portraits,’ still reaches nearly five minutes. A radical shift in execution, the band moves into a more symphonic death metal approach, with crushing sustained blasting and vomited guttural hell for vocals. Still retaining its ghastly black metal features, this direct show of force is a nice change in pace later in the record. Once again, the keyboard work is complimentary and captivating, such a respectable performance given, so much emotion added to the final sound. The half-time break and crawling tempo the band employs towards the middle of the track are a nice touch.

‘The Boreal Monastery’ is a great display of deathly beauty late in the record. One has to consider the overall running time of The Corpse of a Titan, a Lament Long Buried stands at nearly 54 minutes. In an age of grossly stunted attention spans, one will ask if there is enough substance to justify the time spent on the record. In this case, absolutely. ‘The Boreal Monastery’ is multi-faceted monstrosity that sits deep in the annuls of the record, establishing the necessity to experience the record from start to finish. Ending with ‘Into a Vale of Endless Snow,’ the record terminates on stunning detail, leaving no weak songs, no moments of fallen opportunities, no half-formed ideas.

There is a case to be made here, that The Corpse of a Titan, a Lament Long Buried is what a band should aim for if they’re going for heavily polished, modern sounding, symphonic black metal. The dynamics saturate from the lows to the extreme highs, creating a multi-dimensional sound that weighs heavily on the listener. The constant presence of keyboards never gets tiring, it never grows stagnant, if anything, trying to imagine the record without keyboards…we’d be having a different conversation, their presence ties everything together, the rat tail that links melody to rhythm, a constant generator of sonic character. The pacing allows for extensive narratives and creative investments, leaving songs as fully developed pieces of emotional music, not meandering circular expressions. Riff crafting is a sincere blend of rhythm and melody, at times merging together to create a barreling channel of focused musical thought.

Give this one time. There is so much detail to the songs, at such a great investment of time, that one cannot soak in all the details on the first pass. Each track deserves to be savored, like the tender limbs of a newly deceased corpse. Multiple sessions will engrain some of these riff segments and bombastic phrases deep into your brain. If there is one symphonic black metal album you check out in 2026, this is a safe bet, for certain.

Label: M-Theory Audio
Band: Hecate Enthroned

AJK