![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Hexrot-Formless-Ruin-of-Oblivion-500x500.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBy: Nameless_n00b_604<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s past and what\u2019s to come is strew\u2019d with husks \/ And formless ruin of oblivion;\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hieronymus Bosch\u2019s triptych masterpiece The Garden of Earthly Delights is iconic, but like Dante\u2019s Divine Comedy, it\u2019s mostly for the Hell part. It\u2019s not hard to see why: it\u2019s a singularly surreal, oppressively grim piece. Scholars aren\u2019t certain about Bosch\u2019s religious beliefs, but the consensus is that he painted this panel to warn viewers to steer clear of temptation or endure everlasting torment in Hell. Avant-garde duo Hexrot <\/strong>has chosen to adorn their debut LP Formless Ruin of Oblivion with a portion of this panel, but they don\u2019t buy Bosch\u2019s dilemma. Promising in its promo a \u201cstylistic m\u00e9lange of death, black, and thrash metal with inventive electronic experimentation,\u201d Hexrot<\/strong> has woven an abstractly grim tale of a world rejecting Heaven and Hell by plunging reality into empty Oblivion. Classical in theming, modern in sound, it sounds like quite the undertaking.<\/p>\n Formless Ruin does a lot, and all of it contributes to Hexrot<\/strong>\u2019s impeccable sense of exploration and adventure. The sales pitch doesn\u2019t lie about Hexrot<\/strong>\u2019s sound, but it omits the unpredictable, jazzy feel. Along with Deathspell Omega-<\/strong>esque discordant black and Ulcerate<\/strong>-like dissonant death metal, the duo of drummer\/vocalist\/electronics producer Melmoth and guitarist\/bassist\/vocalist Arkain possesses a bombastic, improvised-feeling chemistry akin to Imperial Triumphant<\/strong>. From the skittering drums and bass of \u201cConsecrating Luminous Conflagration\u201d to the trash-canned climax of the fifteen-minute monster title track to \u201cWhat Lies Veiled\u201d riffing on and modifying Death<\/strong>\u2019s opening \u201cSymbolic\u201d riff like a jazz standard, Formless Ruin of Oblivion rages and writhes in jazz fashion as often as it does in metal. Hexrot<\/strong>\u2019s rhythmic talents are top-notch, serving obscenely busy drumming on \u201cHeavenward\u201d and immense, thrumming bass on \u201cClandestine Haunt\u201d at odd and changing time signatures. Meanwhile, winding leads on \u201cConsecrating Luminous Conflagration\u201d and jarring electronics on the title track keep Formless Ruin\u2019s melodic identity difficult to pin down. It\u2019s a wild ride down to Oblivion.<\/p>\n Sometimes this album doesn\u2019t even sound real at all. Because Hexrot<\/strong> established such an organic sound, every instance of electronic music creeping into the mix is surprising and even unnerving. \u201cConsecrating Luminous Conflagration\u201d ends and gets absorbed and rewound by the following \u201cGhostly Retrograde I,\u201d synths join arpeggiated guitar on \u201cHeavenward\u201d to build its eerie elegance, and the title track collapses into crushed static. If there\u2019s one aspect in which Formless Ruin isn\u2019t totally enthralling, however, it\u2019s sometimes when the synths and electronics stand alone. \u201cGhostly Retrograde II\u201d drags by the end, as does the droning conclusion to \u201cFormless Ruin of Oblivion\u201d; these are the only times my mind wanders. But when they work, they elevate Hexrot<\/strong>, lending haunting qualities that at times remind me of the atmospherics of Cryptic Shift<\/strong>\u2019s excellent Visitations from Enceladus. Hexrot<\/strong>\u2019s push and pull between the organic and artificial is captivating: aptly put on the title track\u2019s lyrics describing a curtain of stars \u201centering stage right,\u201d Formless Ruin of Oblivion draws attention to its own artifice, revealing the artifice of its story\u2019s reality, justifying Oblivion.<\/p>\n Formless Ruin of Oblivion demands your attention. I\u2019ve begun so many casual spins of this album, and almost all of them turned into deep listens by track three. Hexrot<\/strong> has that touch to take the most seemingly unapproachable stuff and somehow make it addictive. Grandiose, volatile, unconventional, and surreal, Hexrot <\/strong>drummed up some Hell on this one, and I for one will be diving straight into whatever Oblivion they open up next.<\/p>\n \ufeff<\/p>\n Rating<\/strong>: Great! \n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By: Nameless_n00b_604 \u201cWhat\u2019s past and what\u2019s to come is strew\u2019d with husks \/ And formless ruin of oblivion;\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[743,12294,113326,145803,145804,11463,10957,12936,145805,77,145806,145807,269,6080,145808,111739,16,37771,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-427322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-743","9":"tag-4-0","10":"tag-aug25","11":"tag-avant-garde","12":"tag-avant-garde-death-metal","13":"tag-black-metal","14":"tag-death","15":"tag-death-metal","16":"tag-deathspell-omega","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-formless-ruin-of-oblivion","19":"tag-hexrot","20":"tag-music","21":"tag-review","22":"tag-transcending-obscurity","23":"tag-transcending-obscurity-records","24":"tag-uk","25":"tag-ulcerate","26":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115210618315020791","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Hexrot-2025_unicorned-272x500.jpg\")
Hexrot <\/strong>plays heavy stuff, conceptually and sonically, but Formless Ruin is surprisingly easy listening. Across its thirty-five-minute runtime, Hexrot <\/strong>seamlessly ties its songs together to form a continuous stream of consciousness, like a live suite. Every song besides the interludes is replete with movements and ideas without committing riff salad, while containing just enough repetition to cement hooks into memory. Vocals sound raw and upfront, consisting of a twin attack of bellowing roars and banshee screams that\u2014while they probably would become monotonous alone\u2014duel and complement each other, adding variety to Hexrot<\/strong>\u2019s palette. And everything just sounds great: Formless Ruin sports rich production and dynamic mixing that allows every wild and disparate idea to breathe. Despite its avant-garde nature, Formless Ruin feels immediate through its grounded, live feel.<\/p>\n
DR<\/strong>: 10 | Review Format<\/strong>: 320 kb\/s mp3
Label<\/strong>: Transcending Obscurity<\/a>
Website<\/strong>: hexrot-label.bandcamp.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/hexrot<\/a>
Release Date<\/strong>: August 29th, 2025<\/p>\n