Tegen Hart

"Noise Undeground" by TEGEN HART is one of the most underrated Italian Metal albums and one of my all-time favourites from this country. It's also one of those albums that's quite hard to pin down, and since Metal down-pinning is what this section of The Corroseum is all about, it has taken me a while to finally get around to write this review...

That's the chorus of the 2nd song, "Outlaw". Now think about that: If you always follow the easiest path in life, don't take any chances and stay clear of the fringes, you will loose your mind and your dreams will crash & burn. This pretty much sums up the spirit of this album. There's no obvious, stand-out trail of influences here, but comparisons can always be made. To me it has always sounded like the album I wanted the disappointing (yeah, let's be honest guys..) 2nd Dark Quarterer-effort to be. It's temping to also compare it to "Land Of Mystery", maybe because of the style and composition of the front sleeve, but Tegen Hart is rather the Yang to Black Hole's Yin, the lush and airy Pink Floyd-Epic Metal to the dark and moody Van Der Graaf Generator-Doom of B.H. I could continue with namedroppings like Omega, Ritual, Lester Maddox etc but they're not really that relevant and more of a if-you-like-these type of reference, so let's get started with the songs instead:

Church bells, solemn keys and bombastic, doomy riffing start us off down into the incredibly well composed, heavy "Flight To The Freedom". They're in total control of their unique brand of Metal. Every riff is perfect, every break in just the right place. Next comes the aforementioned "Outlaw". It's 'the melodic one', and maybe - if a confession were to be forced out of me at gunpoint - the teeny-weeny weaker tune. It is also fuckin' brilliant and never ever comes close to commercial territories, and then you can say that about the slowest song on the album you know you have a winner in hand. And then, "Fight In The Night": an 8-and-a-half minute Epic orgasm. That middle-part, with the "Hammerheart"-choirs and the SBS-era-Sabbath-riffs and the Warlord-climax, it'll make you fucking DIE!

They don't hold back on the Epic on side B. "Last Assault" continue to combine the finest bits of pompy viking-Bathory and Warlord'ian might with a melodic nwobhm-chorus. Imagine Adramelch wanting to play Doom! Doom is also what we find in "Lonely Suburb". The prog and the Floyd are also invited but despite its length of almost 10 minutes it never feels drawn out or gets boring. Like with the rest of the entire album you feel that nothing is left to chance - there is a melody in everything they do. You'd think that finishing off the album with a 3 minute instrumental intermission "Fading Horizons" would point against that argument, but Tegen Hart is a one-in-a-million type of band that would get away with it. It's the perfect background music to put on a cup of coffee, sit down in your comfy-chair, come down from and contemplate what you've just heard.