Ceremony of Silence – Hálios (Review)

This is the second album from Slovakian black/death metal band Ceremony of Silence.

Five years after 2019’s malignant Oútis, Ceremony of Silence have returned with the 36-minute Hálios. An album of atmospheric brutality, Hálios expands on and further develops the strengths of Ceremony of Silence’s debut album.

There is a dark otherworldly dissonance at the heart of Hálios that’s imbued with a malevolent melodic lustre. It’s cloaked in claustrophobic atmosphere, while still being ripe with suffocating violence and caustic brutality. The mixture of dissonant black and death metal that Ceremony of Silence invoke is withering, yet moreish; you just want more of the poison, and the band pour it down your throat like the finest of corrupted wines. The songs slither and twist with uncompromising mood-rich intensity, and it’s hard to resist their clarion call to succumb.

This is not an album of conventional songs and hooks – although some of the riffs are certainly head turners – but rather one that’s best taken holistically and as an immersive experience. This is the sort of music you reach for when you want to be swept away in the swirling eddies of blackened dissonant chaos, while still being able to navigate by the band’s eerie songwriting prowess; amidst the impenetrable devastation lies an oasis of breathing room, or an infectious spectral melody, or a particularly hateful riff, with which to orient yourself before the merciless tide washes you away once more into the depths of lightless nightmare.

Hálios is insidious. It grows like a plague, slowly burning through your defences with a lethal inevitability. It’s not a casual listen, but one that requires a mindset of surrendering to the unrelenting horror that it portrays. I confess I wasn’t expecting it to be quite as good as it is.

Fans of bands such as Ad Nauseam, Aeviterne, Altarage, Convulsing, Deathspell Omega, Dodecahedron, Hecatoncheir, Ingurgitating Oblivion, Kvadrat, Sacrificial Vein, Suffering Hour, Ulcerate, etc. would do very well to check out Ceremony of Silence.