The rhythmic drum beat & feedback heavy guitars slide effortlessly into a post-rock melody as the 10-plus minute opener, Eight Billion Stars announces its arrival. …and what an arrival it is. Deeply disturbing in its heaviness, it drips dark atmosphere even when producing glorious sounding hard-rock melody. The breath-taking opener is then followed by the rumblings of fuzzy doom mixed with eerie sci-fi effects before the more upbeat & groove-laden Towards the Nebula impresses. The lack of vocals certainly doesn’t have a negative effect of A Ring of Blue Light even if comparisons to the likes of Deafheaven are easy to make. Hemelbestormer do make their own mark though & the variety in tracks will put a smile on faces. Redshift is the most expansive track on the album, a gothic melody that wouldn’t sound out of place in a Silent Hill game drifts towards an injection of doom that is deeply depressing in tone. Just over the halfway mark it seems to end, going quiet before haunting & horrifying effects start up followed by an injection of heavier rock pace. Blue Light once again offers a sort of intermission with a sweet & light melody that is wonderfully fitting for the album as a whole. The thrum of the bass against the finger-licking guitar is genius. A great slab of doomy post rock ends on the one final lengthy push. The Serpent Bearer is a compilation of everything Hemelbestormer do well. Booming heaviness, subtle melody, haunting effects & a darkened gothic tone. A fantastic finish to a fantastic album.
