It’s about two years now that the French trio HYRGAL crossed my path for the first time. The re-release of their debut album “Serpentine” and the fantastic three-way split release with BÂ’A and VERFALLEN, both on Les Acteurs De L’Ombre Productions, left a great impression on me. Two years later, HYRGAL are back with a completely new line-up, after founder and mastermind F.C. had to find a whole new rhythm section. But the remoulded band hasn’t changed their musical direction or quality. “Fin De Règne”, which is the name of the new album, follows the given path of the split release and leads the sound of HYRGAL more into darker sceneries. Yet the bands approach to find their own balance between old and “trve” sounds and the more Post Black Metal sounding style never gets lost. If anything, they more and more refined their sound and delivered one of the best Black Metal albums this year. The opening track ‘Colère Noire’ comes along quite old fashioned in its appearance, but some unusual breaks make it special. ‘Malthusien’ and ‘Ennemi(e)s’ are really great songs with fantastic, sometimes fragmentary guitar harmonies and, in case of the latter, a quiet break that somehow tames the fury. And some quiet moments are fine as complete gloominess descends with ‘Sépulcre’. I rarely heard something similarly eerie than this utterly dark and doomed song. Pure black Doom! And even though ‘Glyphe De Sang’ still is very dark, with an atmosphere similar to MGŁA, it sounds pretty friendly in comparison to ‘Sépulcre’, at least until the doomy and very blackened end. With ‘Héritier Mort-Né’, we have another song full of great guitars before the final ‘Triste Sire’ ends “Fin De Règne” in a furious way. After all, I can say that I was looking forward to this new album from HYRGAL with great expectations that were not disappointed! Any fan of the new school of Black Metal should check “Fin De Règne” out. For more information visit www.facebook.com/hyrgal and www.facebook.com/ladloproductions