With HYRGAL, we have one of the best and most active French Black Metal bands with already three damn fine full length albums in their discography. So they can easily be called one of the premier Black Metal bands from France. Not even a year after their latest, self-titled album we have a new release from the band that grew into a four piece over the years. This time it is an EP with five new songs and a cover tune, baptised “Session Funéraire Anno MMXXIII”. Some of the new songs show a side of HYRGAL that sounds a bit more compact in the compositions without leaving the path beaten. I got the impression that F.C. and his allies tried to write songs that hit the nerve of the listener more directly than before. The first three songs are rather straight songs in the band’s typical refined old fashioned Black Metal style, showcasing the typical trademarks of HYRGAL for sure. ‘Deuil Éclair’ gets the listener with piercing guitar harmonies while ‘Phalanges Assassines’ is a really raging song with some D-best styled breaks. ‘Épique Spleen’ is more based on mid tempo, yet it reminds me of SATYRICON in its atmosphere. Asides from these three songs, HYRGAL also show their experimental side here as well. ‘Gorge Blanche / Surin Noir’ is a really slow, dark tune with industrial influences and some classical acoustic guitar breaks that directly transitions into a kind of very dark horror movie sequence with samples, given the Japanese title ‘炎が秒を貪り食う場所 (Honō Ga Byō O Musabori Kuu Basho)’. These two songs need getting used to, but have a certain charme for sure. In the end, after about twenty minutes of new original stuff from HYRGAL, we find a well executed cover of ‘Dark Endless’ from MARDUK, which is a nice extra, but nothing more. HYRGAL showed some new details of their sound on “Session Funéraire Anno MMXXIII” that will surely please anyone out there who digs fine Black Metal. Find out more about HYRGAL at www.facebook.com/hyrgal and visit the label at www.facebook.com/ladloproductions