Have you ever heard something so out of the left-field that you were left simply not knowing how to feel about it or what to do about it? It’s not often whatsoever that I find myself faced with such an album, but it’s every year that I get thrown a couple of albums that I never could have expected even if I had the gift of true foresight. When I first even saw just the title for tonight’s example, I couldn’t even begin to fathom what I was in for. I’ve always loved and hailed black metal for being a true bastion of experimentalism and innovation in the modern landscape that metal finds itself in, and it’s only natural that we get an example that cannot be considered anything other than inexplicable. Without fail, Hanormale’s latest embodies that to the fullest extent.

I’m always ready to have my mind blown or bent into any given direction whenever I come upon a new piece from a new band that I’ve never heard of before, but, understandably, it’s only on rare occasions that I’m able to find myself faced with the likes of which that Hanormale has brought forth here. Far from a fledgling act struggling to find its foothold in the sprawling underground, this Italian act has clearly established itself as one of the more unconventional acts that black metal has seen in recent years with its newest creation, “The Cathartic Anointing of Heterodoxy in Resilience (A Black Metal Rhapsody)”, likely it’s most complex and insane to date. There’s so much to find and lose yourself in within this nearly hour-long album of nine pieces brought together by a whopping sixteen different musicians; it was to the point where it became too much for me at first, forcing me to come back to the album another time to really chip away at all there is. Black metal is absolutely the core and soul of what this album was meant to revolve around with Hanormale never once neglecting to make that clear, but it’s with the infusion of so many different styles all the way from jazz, industrial, and ambient that it makes one wonder how this work was able to come together at all with all that it dares to bring forth. There is surely an argument to be made from plenty of corners throughout the very whole of black metal that “The Cathartic Anointing” is a true bastardization of what the sound has stood for and a form of worst-case scenario when people dare to bring new ideas to the sound. But it’s even as I find myself disagreeing with certain parts of the album, particularly the Queen cover that nothing in this world could’ve prepared me for, innovation like this is always a sight to behold.

This is what it means to bring an artistic vision to even the most abhorrent of sounds with a group of people daring to bring something new to the table with the goal to craft something that is certifiably theirs, unable to be compared to anything else. Whether or not this was the intention of Hanormale in the crafting of this mammoth work, there is so much to lose yourself in with the world that they’ve crafted here. There’s true passion to be had in every note, unyielding imagination in every minute, and the drive in each song to present something that we wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else. For all that “The Cathartic Anointing” is, and it is absolutely many, many things, it’s inexplicable in its very existence. It’s destined to be both hailed and hated depending on who’s ears it falls upon, but Hanormale should be able to lean back and know that they’ve crafted something unique, deeply layered, and utterly captivating. I, for one, find it enjoyable just for that.

LISTEN to tracks from “The Cathartic Anointing of Heterodoxy in Resilience (A Black Metal Rhapsody)” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Hanormale on Facebook here.