The coming of the SWOBM Back in the beginning of the 90's created a School of Metal that still has its charm and seduces the listeners. And throughout the world, the genre still breeds new bands. And from Poland comes HEGEROTH, a trio assaulting with their second album, the astonishing "Degenarate". Their musical work is based on a melodic form of Black Metal from the 90's, but adorned with bitter crude melodies. Maybe the way of old works from SATYRICON albums ("Dark Medieval Times" and "The Shadowthrone", I mean), ANCIENT (on their "The Cainian Chronicles" days), ABIGOR and LORD BELIAL could be set as a good comparison, but not trying to depart the trio music from its deeper value. It's brutal and aggressive sometimes, but then those sinister and funereal melodies arise, catching the attention of the listener. It's full of energy and has a strong identity.

The sound quality of the album was conceived to be crude and oppressive, the best one for the music to gain life. But Bene (who worked on the mixing and mastering of "Degenerate") made efforts to make the songs be easy to be understood by the listener. It's aggressive, but in a way that can be assimilated by the senses without great efforts. Nine very good songs are available on "Degenerate", all of them giving the fans a very good time. But the aggressiveness that the guitar riffs bear on "Eyes Wide Open", the technical approach used by the rhythmic session on "Master of the Sins", the funereal ambience on "Oh Glorious Night" (very good shrieked voices in the middle of this oppressive set of harmonies, and be prepared for the tempos' changes), the contrast between fast moments and slow bitter parts of "No Halo No Tiara", and the Black/Thrash outfit used on "Valley of Dusk" are the album's best moments.

The musical work of HEGEROTH is really good, but on "Degenerate", it can be easily felt that they have potential to do something even better. Let's wait for it!