Blood Magick - Hexikon

The concept behind Blood Magick's "Hexikon" is a tried-and-true formula that I have enjoyed heavily in the past; an occult-based electro-industrial / EBM festival. The cover art alone invokes imagery of wicked sorcery being that there's an aged person standing above the bones of their possible victims with a symbol floating above their head. But, concept aside, the real reason occult albums stand out to me is for what is found within. If the music fails to inspire fictional thoughts of this devilry being spoke about within the album, then I can't fall for it. And that's where Blood Magick fails in its delivery; the structure of the album is extremely repetitious with vocals that never quite fit the rhythms or beats found within each of the songs on the album. 

'Emerge From Chaos' begins the album. For its three-minute and fifty second duration, hardly a thing changes. The bassline remains practically the same throughout the runtime and, though there are some decent sounding electronic samples played above the beat, it's redundant. It wore out its welcome within the first minute-and-a-half but kept going. The other problem found on this song are the vocals. I can best describe them as what was found within the hellektro and aggrotech scene from the early 2010s; really distorted vocals that sound like a demon. While these vocals can sound great in the right songs, they don't flow with the music and absolutely dominate the mix, rendering the music obsolete whenever they takeover.



Some of the tracks on the album do have an interesting beat such as the title track itself. It's an interesting EBM like beat with noise textures juxtaposed. However, just like with the first song on the album and the many that come after it, the bassline just repeats itself for three-minutes and forty-three seconds. I had the same problem with 'Necromentia'. I loved the percussive beat found within; somewhat tribal with an industrial influence. However, again, it just loops and repeats for the three-minute and thirty-nine second duration. Also, the vocals on the track once again overpower the music whenever Blood Magick uses them. 

One of the few songs that I really got into on the album was one of the shortest, that being 'Void'. This dark ambient track presents itself with a wall of noise, not static, but atmospheric. A couple of bright synth lines pop up above it and it made me feel at peace, to say the very least. It was organic, didn't last too long, and I never felt as if it was dull. I will admit, however, that it does feel out of place on an album whose sole focus is electro-industrial music. It comes out of nowhere, though it is delightful.

One thing that could have alleviated some of the problems on "Hexikon" would have been to get a proper mix and master for the album. I'm not a sound engineer, but when I'm listening to an album and the vocals absolutely dominate sections of a track, that's a mixing / mastering problem. Having a professional sound engineer go through your music with a fine-tooth comb would have polished it up and made it pop a lot more than it does. In the album's current state, it lacks refinement. 

Blood Magick's "Hexikon" falls into a trap of never moving out of a comfort zone. Once a track has a bassline or a groove going on, it does not move on from that arena. It seems as if a lot of the songs are trapped in a time loop. The vocals need to be adjusted in some way, shape, or form; they are brutally overpowering instead of settling nicely into the mix. And, as mentioned above, perhaps having the music professionally mixed and mastered would do wonders for Blood Magick. Sure, the dark ambient track attached at the end is decent, but that's one track out of ten that only lasts fifty-eight seconds. All-in-all, I can't find a reason to recommend this album to anyone. For all those reasons, I give "Hexikon" a three out of ten. 

This review was commissioned through our Ko-fi page.
Sep 16 2021