Eternal Introspective Winter is, after one single demo, the debut full-length record of HKN. The Italian trio is devoted to cold and grim Black Metal.

The prelude to this record is affected by A New Dawn, with over ten minutes playing time the longest track on the album. The beginning is sluggish and the guitars get thereto played right scrubbing lending the atmosphere a certain slight stale touch. The insert of the vocals is terminating this, the scrubbing and old-fashioned striking is blending in a calmer and colder playing. Despite the long playing time, A New Dawn stays catching, there are occasionally some single alternations as slight variations and a faster played part at the end of the song.
Likewise catching but faster and more driving it continues on November Sky. As already on A New Dawn the shrill sounding and fast played lead guitar is astonishing, which decisively promotes the catching atmosphere. In detail November Sky is turned out to be more multifarious, so it frequently comes to rhythmic changes and the fast, strident and catching riffing is yielding sporadically a more melodic playing.
Stomping and fast it starts on Dying For Ever. During the first half nothing structural is changing obviously. The catching hold playing as the vocals, being distorted but calm, are establishing a cold and dismayed atmosphere. But after four minutes, rather exact on the middle of the song, a long melodic part is coming, which is impressing. Playing and sound are still raw, but as the otherwise catching guitar is now melodic, partly even played slight scrubbing again, and also the drumming yields diverting pushes sounding pleasant rocky. The hereto following L'Ultimo Giorno is a pure instrumental and as the same time shortest song on the CD. It's a calm and dark keyboard/Piano track.

Fast and dragging passages are alternating on Illusione Di Esistenza. The lead guitar is mostly even played fast, but at certain points it observes and does well and melancholic muting riffs offhand. Although the vocals don't change, they pleased me more on the Illusione Di Esistenza than on the prevailing songs. That is lying in the vernacular: Illusione Di Esistenza is the first track sung on Italian by HKN. That sounds better so far, because the vocals are slightly faster in their pronunciation and therewith effect more grim and emphatic.
Finally follows the main song Eternal Introspective Winter. During the first half it is also a catching hold song, predominated by cold speed. In the second part a dark-harmonic and correspondingly melancholic part is heard, where beautiful, depressed melodies get to a dominating element. This part is gradually increasing its intensity and enhances into the initial catching, in which the record is fading out.

Eternal Introspective Winter is just at the beginning, during the first two songs, quite properly, but in the long run too catching and lacking in variations. This also lies in the length of the songs, which - excepting the instrumental - are all of eight to ten minutes. But with the third title, HKN is considerably rising. Henceforth it gives more changes in structure, what increases the atmospheric intensity substantially and is good for Eternal Introspective Winter.

If HKN continues the last three songs style, you can await a lot from HKN in the future.


Aceust

01. A new dawn
02. November sky
03. Dying for ever
04. L'ultimo giorno
05. Illusione di esistenza
06. Eternal introspective winter


ALGIZ ART PRODUCTIONS