It’s curious to think that bands operating in more tropical areas of the world would particularly gravitate towards Norse Gods, but indeed the renewed interest in elder gods and pantheistic religions seems to be something that’s very much central to the black metal mythology, a genre that’s certainly expanded its tentacles with speed right around the globe over the past several years. Founder members Surt and Thorgrim had previously been responsible for forming highly respected Brazilian doom metal band Dark Eden before their increasing interests in Norse Gods and the Odinist faith lead them to create Hugin & Munin – the new project taking its name from the two fabled messenger ravens that relayed information back to Odin himself. Recorded independently by the band late last year, this debut five track EP ‘Raven’s Empire’ introduces the new group configuration and with track titles like ‘Thor In Jotunheim’ and ‘A Viking Funeral’, it’s pretty obvious what’s in store here. After a fairly grandiose faux-cinematic intro section comprised of majestic synth orchestration, horns and bells, ‘Thor In Jotenheim’ sees the quintet opting for straight-out Black Metal thunder much in the vein of Mayhem or Behemoth, massed blast beats colliding with downtuned guitar serration and Surt’s sandpaper-throated roar. ‘Battle For Asgard’ meanwhile adds a more rowdy edge, with the massed chorus yells certainly calling to mind a band of Vikings laying waste to a city, before ‘A Viking Funeral’ gets busy with the double-kick drums and a vaguely Yngwie Malmsteen-esque guitar solo. From the point of view of a metal fan, it’s certainly more than solid stuff, but in this case the strength of the songs here is compromised badly by the poor mix, which pretty squashes the drums and vocals into indistinguishable mush. A pity, as the five tracks here otherwise show plenty of promise.
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