After a cosmic intro hinting at horrors unknown lurking in the depths of space we are thrown into the realms of symphonic Black Metal bringing to mind the likes of EMPEROR, LIMBONIC ART or BAL-SAGOTH. This is the debut album of HRYRE, from the UK. They are heavily into a kind of atmospheric, melodic Metal, often fast but more often slowing down to allow space for dreamy, ominous moods. There are a lot of keyboards, tempo changes, spoken parts, and a general effort to make the music varied and interesting, often successfully; there are even parts such as in ‘Cast Into Shade Part One’ that can definitely be labeled Folk Metal. The band is able of jumping from slow, quasi-acoustic mildness to fast and aggressive onslaughts. Despite its moments, the result as a whole sounds a bit run-of-the-mill, and the production is not very good at all, lacking the grandiose majesty this music requires. The sound is just too muffled, with a drumkit left too far in the background and particularly underproduced. There is potential that shines through well-crafted songs like ‘Alive Beneath The Surface’, with its very melodic and oneiric passages, but there is also a lot of room for development. This will appeal to you if you are a fan of this kind of music, but even so it is a relatively average release. I wonder how the album would sound with a good production, as I believe this really does hurt the end result. Toward the end of ‘Cast Into Shade Part Two’ (a song nearly a quarter of an hour long), in a rampage that is almost CRADLE OF FILTH like, I found myself surprised at how bad it all sounds and trying to imagine how it could profit from a good recording and studio work. I love old school Black Metal bands that sound raw and primitive, but this is not even that kind of production, it’s flat and weak. And this style of Metal cannot really work like that. Check the band out at www.facebook.com/hryreuk, www.code666.net