Artist: Hatenoir
Country: Unknown
Label: Altare Productions
Formats: Cassette Tape
Year: 2026
In the fall of 2025 Hatenoir debuted with ‘Candles Hold The Dark Light’, a demo that was released by Blackreach Productions on the most inferior format ever: a CDr. Yet, somehow that fitted well with the band’s clumsy early 00s logo as well. In a sense, the package reflects what this (apparently) one-man project has to offer: misanthropic Black Metal as if there had been no two decades of musical development and expansion.
This follow-up, for that matter, is not so much different. Altare Productions signed in for the release of ‘Blasphemy Of The Souls’, but also opted for the CDr option, but fortunately, there is also a cassette tape edition for those who like to have something substantial. Hatenoir dropped the logo but went for a photo of himself holding a candelabra. Well, we might have seen that before as well.
But, as stated, this all seems part of a deliberate strategy. Hatenoir is all about sharp-edged hateful Black Metal that harkens back to those bygone years in which Black Metal was really all about just that. The pace and the uncanny production, it all works together to complete the picture of a Black Metal act that pays homage to the very late 90s and early 00s. It brings me back to those boxes of old demos by bands like Gnostic, Godless North and Lugubre. Bands that may no longer be on everyone’s lips, but which together caused an explosion of raw and rough Black Metal some twenty-five years ago. Perhaps to today’s ears it sounds a bit one-sided and primitive or even flat-footed, but everything has its stages of development and it served its purpose. For me, it’s a nice surprise to hear a new band reviving this style: Black Metal at 90s Marduk speed without any fuss.
