It’s not exactly a stretch to suggest death and black metal already are bizarre art forms on the surface, especially for the uninitiated. But for those of us who have been listening to these styles of music for decades, it’s hard to find things that warp our senses and raise our eyebrows because we’ve heard it all before. Being surprised happens less frequently, but when it does, it really sticks in the back of your brain.

Italian force Hadit fall into the category of bands that eschews the typical and leans heavily into the unconventional. Just look at the title of this record—“Metaphysical Engines Approaching the Event Horizon.” Right away it feels like you’re confronting something harsh and brain bending, and if that’s an alluring idea for you, then you’ll melt your brain taking on this record. Over eight tracks and 48 minutes, the band—vocalist/guitarist Xn, bassist/synth player/guitarist/backing vocalist G.G., drummer Fulgŭrātŏr—takes it to you physically and psychologically, twisting death and black metal to express their bizarre mythologies, keeping you guessing at every turn. In fact, repeat listens reveal twists and turns you may have missed the previous excursions, and that’s one of the things that makes this album so enthralling. It feels like a new journey every time.

“Becoming the Light Eternally Driving on the Photon Sphere” opens with drums echoing and spacious dreaming, coating the vicious growls in combustible elements. The playing blisters as the speed ratchets up, the drums carve pathways in the earth, and the punishing pace zaps and crunches bone to power. “Interstellar Medium’s Rhapsody” brings grim and beastly growls that mix into sludgy punishment that buries you in echo. A synth glaze rises and enchants as the band crushes wills, wailing away until the air is sucked out of the room. “Three Ways of Death After Gravitational Collapse” mangles as the screams scar, retching as the guitars churn, clean singing adding a different level of depth to their power. Tingling and blistering, you’re piledriven into the mud as the growls engorge, and sinewy leads lap with intensity. The singing freezes, the pace mauls, and fires consume whatever’s left. “Screaming From the Throat of a Reversed Light Being” starts with numbing guitars and growls that eat through flesh, lurching through the filth, the bass slinking just as brutality rages anew. Keys echo as the blood thickens, bells chime and cause you to lose balance, and a heavy fog envelopes and disappears into mystery.

“Find Your Death, Cosmic Wreckage” is utter demolition as it enters, the growls welling and erupting into a monstrous chasm, the bass buzzing as mystical keys begin to establish a hypnotic tone. The band pummels as the drumming lays waste, stripping away flesh as the inhuman howls land before an abrupt end. “Blood and Gods Know Where Weakness Is” combusts, trucking over prone bodies, the growls trampling as the playing turns smothering in a hurry. The guitars squeal as the playing hammers, spreading ferocity and sending chills down your spine, bleeding into the ground. “The Eternals’ Dream Out of Time and Frames” opens with guitars glimmering and punches thrown generously, laying in the numbing blows. The playing is warped and heated, blazing with ill intent, the darkness swelling as the leads pulsate and dig into your psyche, leaving you shaking uncontrollably. Closer “Del Tramonto Sul Nulla, Dove Fuoco Diventa Cielo” dawns with guitars blurring and drubbing, menacing darkness spreading as doom bells toll. The tension carves and teases, causing the earth to quake beneath you. Things continue to get more ominous, the growls eat into your nervous system, and the fires smear, causing flesh to peel from your body, hypnotic power finally giving itself up to a wall of noise.

“Metaphysical Engines Approaching the Event Horizon” certainly is a strange record, one that bends death and black metal into bizarre shapes, making these styles seem like something alien. That’s been something Hadit practiced in their decade as a unit, and it seems like their exploration efforts are just getting started. More records like this one will keep these sounds fresh and expanding, making the potential for what’s possible nearly astronomical.  

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/HADITDEATHMETAL

To buy the album (U.S.), go here: https://metalodyssey.8merch.us/

Or here (Europe): https://metalodyssey.8merch.com/

For more on the label, go here: https://www.facebook.com/i.voidhanger.records/