from the album L'Impôt du Sang

ALT: Happy Dancing Banana Cartoon

from the album L'Impôt du Sang

YouTube video by Into Eternity

Mit „La fête de la forêt enchantée“ wird am 8. Oktober 2026 via Antiq Records das neue Album…

HYVER (Symphonic Black Metal/Dungeon Synth, France) sortira son nouvel opus La Fête de la Forêt Enchantée le 8 octobre chez Antiq. Tracklist :\n\n1. L'Invitation\n2. Un Chemin Mystérieux\n3. Dans la C...

Black Magic Tree, Dead and Dripping, Hyver, Struck A Nerve - Upcoming Albums - Metal Utopia - Albums of November 28, 2025 - Heavy Metal Webzine

from the album L'Impôt du Sang

It's late, but I'm back. Let's make this quick. This is an interesting overlap. Tenebris and Hyver are releasing a collaboration on June 28th through Antiq, Tänzelcore / techno split. For a sample from each, check out Tenebris' "Lullabies for Adventures" and Hyver's "Reanimation". For some UK experimental rock, give Abrasive Trees some attention. Their debut album, Light Remaining…

Recueil des modes de la cour de France, 'Femme de qualité en habit d'hyver', Nicolas Arnoult (France, circa 1650-1722), France, Paris, 1687, Prints, Hand-colored engraving on paper.

One of the things I enjoy most about folk metal is that I never know exactly what I’m going to hear until I press play. This is, of course, due to the fact that folk music in general varies so widely depending on the region from which it originates. Hyver, who runs the label Antiq Records in France, has been crafting medieval-style folk/black metal under various musical projects for some time now. Twelve found plenty to praise in 2021’s Au Fleuve de Loire, notwithstanding its patchwork nature. The latest collection of Hanternoz songs is each about a different type of devil from Breton folklore. From what I can gather, A Hed an Noz, a Noz, a Noz loosely translates as “At Night, At Night, At Night” in Breton. Does this album go bump in the night or does it fall with a flat thud? A Hed an Noz should sound familiar to those who have heard Hyver’s other work. The bread and butter is still the heroic trem-picked guitars and gallant drumming that one can also hear from Véhémence or (to a lesser extent) Grylle. Hyver’s vocals are as chameleonic as ever, adopting many different shades of demonic rasps, growls, and groans that embody the album’s theme. This diversity in vocal styles is fortunate because the diversity of instrumentation has greatly diminished. This time, Hanternoz mostly takes the Cnoc An Tursa approach of examining folk music through a metal lens without much in the way of actual folk instruments, which are sequestered to the lone instrumental interlude “Pe trouz War an Douar.” A Hed an Noz, a Noz, a Noz by Hanternoz The fact that the bag of tricks from which Hanternoz draws is much smaller ends up holding back A Hed an Noz. It’s a sizable step backward from Au Fleuve de Loire, where the folk music and synths were woven directly into the black metal in a more energetic and dynamic fashion. Hanternoz may have taken to heart Twelve’s prior observation of the compositions feeling stitched together because A Hed an Noz is certainly more cohesive, but at the cost of much of its zeal. To be fair, this is not an issue across the board. Most notably, “La Lessive des Trépassés” is punchy and to the point, with Joanna Maeyens’1 guest vocals overlapping enchantingly with the predominant growls. The production of A Hed an Noz is nice and crisp, especially with regard to the bass mixing, which greatly enriches the guitar lines (“La Peste à Limoges,” “Quand j’ai tué le Roi de la Forêt”). Yet, these promising core elements of A Hed an Noz are undermined by an overreliance on repetition. Opener “Sur le Chemin des fées” is somehow galloping and plodding at the same time, the triumphant guitars becoming muted as they build up again and again towards a payoff that never comes after nearly 12 minutes. Closing track “Quand j’ai tué le Roi de la Forêt” gets stuck in a mid-paced rut, resulting in a more lethargic sensation than should be warranted given the valiant guitar leads. The long-form songwriting in “La Peste à Limoges” fares better, centered around an infectious, bouncy groove which gets my head bobbing, though the midsection is a tad protracted and disjointed. The charismatic vocal delivery helps but isn’t enough to overcome the fact that no song on A Hed an Noz is justified in being over 6 minutes long, yet most of them are. Ultimately, A Hed an Noz left less and less of an impression on me the more time I spent with it. The delightful unpredictability from Au Fleuve de Loire is simply not present here. I am left puzzled as to why Hanternoz decided to discard the majority of the toolkit that served them well in the past. There is a fair amount of decent material here that would have done better without as much padding, and it’s worth a listen by anyone who enjoys Hyver’s take on medieval black metal. Just expect less medieval and more monotony this time around. --- Rating: 2.5/5.0 DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3 Label: Antiq Records Websites: antiqofficial.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/people/Hanternoz-Pagan-de-Bretagne Releases Worldwide: August 3rd, 2026 The post Hanternoz – A Hed an Noz, a Noz, a Noz Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

ELFFOR (Epic/Atmospheric Black Metal/Ambient/Dungeon Synth, Espagne), HYVER (Symphonic Black Metal/Dungeon Synth, France) et ERROIAK (Black Metal, France) sortiront un split commun intitulé Roi des Fo...