The Bishop Of Hexen "The Death Masquerade" CD Digipack

Formed in late 1994 in Israel, the band has released one of the most appreciated atmospheric black metal album to date "Archives Of An Enchanted Philosophy", now after 14 years since their latest album the band has released their return from the darkest depths to unleash : The death Masquerade.
This new set of songs is a deep and introspecting journey, from orchestral black metal vibes to theatrical and monumental atmospheres.
The Bishop of Hexen literally chases you through your nightmares. Sometimes you are driven through the undergrowth with nasty boards in panic of breathlessness…This new album is a true masterpiece of symphonic-black metal with many unexpected twists, a never-ending tension, and all of this is presented in a playful top form

This was a long awaited release, after their previous full album, the excellent “Nightmarish Compositions” (2006). We have this particular difficulty in reviewing this one because, for those whom have been following The Bishop of Hexen (like me), most of the songs presented here are not totally new, as the band have been releasing material throught the years, as the "A Ceremony at the Edge of a Burning Page" EP or various previews for the (then) upcoming album. And all of that material (four out of eight tracks so far) have been included in this release, including re-recorded versions of the two tracks from the 2012 EP.
The Bishop of Hexen have been often compared to bands like Dimmu Borgir and Arcturus, and their sound indeed flows between both, but in “The Death Masquerade” they move a bit more into an Arcturus direction (La Masquerade Infernale anyone?), with a more theatrical approach and a more organic, maybe “mature” sound, ie. by toning down the overtaking keyboards sound of their previous works. This is clearly noticeable while listening to the two re-recorded tracks, the first of those being the darkly catchy and onimous “A Witch King Reborn”, which is one of the most memorable parts of the album. Althought I have to note that I still prefer the more "cheese" sounding, keyboard-flooded version from the EP.
The following tracks are good quality, well executed, grandiose symphonic black metal. The track “Death Masks” stands out with a lot of potence and overwhelming over-the-top passages, some of which are a variation of the outro “Sine Nomine”. “A thousand Shades of Slaughter” (originally released on 2015) aroses as another highlight of the full length. We listen a lot of breaks through the album's 50 minutes of lenght, and I would say, almost musical divagation at some points. The effort for some innovation is patent and the mix of elements on the music is richer than in "The Nightmarish Compositions", but less consistent. Anyway, the sound is so hauntly beautiful and the outcome so entertaining most of the time that you are too busy to really care.
The Bishop of Hexen managed to bring us a good, solid symphonic black metal release after all of these years and, while not surpasing the highmark of their previous full length, and lacking (for some of us) much of the dazzling effect you could expect from a new album, because of the amount of material previously released, its a very good listen, and we just can hope that the Israel-based band doesn’t take so long to release another full lenght. Fans of the aforementioned Dimmu Borgir and Arcturus or also Limbonic Art and Anorexia Nervosa should definively listen to this.

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