OI MAGOI

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Hail Spirit Noir's psychedelic black metal on Pneuma was an intriguing experiment; their tripped out psyche-prog blackened rock on Oi Magoi is the explosive result. A somewhat weightier album than Pneuma, running around 10 minutes longer, and it feels like a good judgement call on the band's part because their sound is genuinely richer and stands up to closer and more intense scrutiny here. Transcending Bizarre? is these guys' main musical port of call, but when this purported side project is turning out material of this quality, and of an originality on a level that could define a whole new subgenre of black metal, it's clear that Oi Magoi are worth keeping a close eye on.

"Oi Magoi" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Greek progressive extreme metal act Hail Spirit Noir. The album was released through code666 in January 2014. Hail Spirit Noir was originally formed as a side-project by two members of Greek avant garde/post-black metal act Transcending Bizarre?, but the band's debut album "Pneuma (2012)" turned out to be a major success for the band. Widely praised by critics and fans alike, so it appears that Transcending Bizarre? is put on hold for the moment and all focus is on Hail Spirit Noir.

Stylistically the music on "Oi Magoi" continues the progressive/psychadelic extreme metal style of "Pneuma (2012)". A curious mix of black metal and 70s hard rock/heavy psych and progressive rock with a freakshow atmosphere. The band's use of vintage keyboards add a warm and organic sound to the music which is further enhanced by the earthy and analogue sounding production. The black metal elements are actually not that dominant on "Oi Magoi" and are pretty much limited to raspy vocals and the occasional harder edged distorted riff section (like the opening section in "Satyriko Orgio (Satyrs' Orgy)") and progressive rock listeners not accustomed to extreme metal vocals, should still be able to greatly appreciate large portions of the album. Tracks like "Satan is Time" and especially the 11:29 minutes long "The Mermaid", both feature clean vocals and longer passages that are closer in style to 70s progressive rock than they are to extreme metal of any kind.

It's the darker and more heavy part of the progressive rock from the 70s that's been the influence on Hail Spirit Noir, so even though there are some tranquil and beautiful sections on "Oi Magoi", there is a dark and almost occult atmosphere to the proceedings that works really well within an extreme metal context. The songwriting was generally on a high level on "Pneuma (2012)", but "Oi Magoi" is more consistent and slightly more sophisticated. As a result of that, it's a slightly stronger album than it's predecessor and that actually says a lot since "Pneuma (2012)" was a surprisingly high quality debut album. "Oi Magoi" deserves a 4.5 star (90%) rating.