Yanked through the process of rotting liquification and fed back into the furnace by the cold hand of death this sophomore full-length album from Haparanda, Sweden-based pagan black metal act HÄXKAPELL ruminates on the cyclic nature of existence, contrasting life’s burden upon the participant with liberation in death before ultimately revealing their purposeful connection. Where ‘Om jordens blod och urgravens grepp‘ takes us is not limited to death, decomposition and rebirth but folken, melody built black metal pieces which stray and scramble from the obviate path of atmospheric pagan/folk thorniness any chance they get, feeding a grand-oaken yet malevolent tonality. While the songs themselves aren’t always built from too-obvious parts the strong melodic character of thier work did ultimately prove memorable.

Häxkapell was founded as a search for deeper self-built fortitudes circa 2015 as the creation of far-north musician Oraklet who has been involved in various black metal efforts dating back to the late 90’s but is best known for his leading presence in the underrated heavy/vikingr metal duo Sons of Crom. His work under this project was immediately impressive as a longtime veteran of self-directed craft and that’d meant their first demo CD (‘Om sanningen‘, 2016) was ‘ready an accomplished study of classic melodic black metal and the wrathful beauty of the Swedish style specifically. I didn’t encounter the project until years later when their debut LP (‘Eldhymner‘, 2021) released later in the year, preventing me from fully investing an appropriate amount of time with its brilliance though I’d included in the Best of October 2021 and gave short review of it suggesting: “Though the inspiration for this project is likewise rooted in various traditions of Swedish black metal we see the artist pulling from multiple disciplines and decades in creation of ‘Eldhymner’ wherein the grace of black/folk metal butts up against the sleek brutality of melodic black metal traditions.” while pointing to the likes of Månegarm for the folken dread of certain pieces and ‘Till fjälls’ for a sense of dramatic and bold vocal work. Needless to say it’d convinced me theirs was a band to watch.

Naturally the quest at hand is to examine the lasting strengths of ‘Eldhymner‘ in hindsight and follow the author’s efforts four years beyond with ‘Om jordens blod och urgravens grepp‘. Up front we trade the hyper-pulsed, brutal cracking pace of mid-90’s melodic black metal found on that first album (see: “Eldskapt”) for an expanded presence, atmosphere which stretches its weight into vocal chorales, folken rants, and increasingly complex pieces. This means Häxkapell immediately leans into the strength of Oraklet‘s vocal talents and (arguably) sets aside the riff as the main directive more often this second time around. The development of melody in arcing interest, as we’ll discover stepping right into “Satans rötter” and its simpler spiral-cut riff, is the main directive and greatest point of polish to observe on this recording, at least from my point of view.

Using the talents of violinist IPU to help bring the opening moments of the album to life through a dramatic breath this second album begins recall the folken (and progressive) aspect of early Bergen pagan and vikingr black metal at its outset. This doesn’t necessarily sap their work of Swedish melodic black metal pummel but the drums’ve been recorded and set differently in the mix creating a different plateau beyond the familiar feeling of the first album. As we strike upon “Metamorfos” this is more clear, a differently brooding station with some of the same storming groove driven riffs bustling beneath but an atmospheric black metal waft to the main hook available to the guitar work. If nothing else we’re already graced with both more accessible sounds and less prescribed song structures, allowing each of the first two songs to find its own point of dramatic surge.

While I was already a fan of Häxkapell based on their previous record I wouldn’t say this album had even begun to convince me as a successor ’til I’d grappled with “Urgravens grepp är hårt och kallt”, an expansion of the folken rhythmic language and meter of the album opener with a brilliant stride to its movement. It wasn’t until then that I’d fully grasped the ‘Bathory-inspired second wave’ directive that much of this record appears to pull from for its vocal affect and dramatic direction. I wouldn’t yet start pointing to ‘Frost‘ or the first Hades record just yet but the different sense of identity and patience found on this record was already admirably different from the first and before the gloomy folk baritone hum of “Hem” hit as a major benchmark for the varietal voice and overall flow of the full listen. For my own taste this is where the album fully blooms into its more dramatic, “epic”, or tragedian trod ’til the end, leading with the brilliant violin and chorale stoked walk into “Vindar från förr”. This piece is for me the glue and the peak of the album’s overall interest.

Our final point of congress with the Earth comes via the ~11.5 minute “Den sanna modern talar” and there I’d only just felt like Häxkapell had opened the door to their realm, getting to the real heart of the album’s central theme and the greater hunt upheld within a multi-movement built epic which contains both the vibrant and softened extremes found on the full listen in one great longform piece. I’ll admit that the full listen felt lop-sided, entertaining enough throughout but unsure of its path until I’d let the whole thing run it back and repeat on loop a couple of times. The pace of this record might not be as barreling as the previous release but it still has enough of a sting to its battery that the rush back into view after Side B builds itself slow and steadily feels dynamic, linked along a less linear path.

Ingenious in its progression of forms beyond the artist’s prior work and vague in its initial carve ‘Om jordens blod och urgravens grepp‘ is its own sort of atmospheric pagan black knot to untie, an album that is clear in its spiritual intent and its aesthetic (via fittingly searching cover artwork from Maéna Paillet) as an experience of dark wanderlust. In sitting with this album I’d appreciated the irregular yarn that wheels from its black metal locus, managing aggression and melody that is simple enough in its wiles and novel for some of its more adventurous instrumentation. A moderately high recommendation.

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