Tel Aviv, 'The White City'. Nestled on the coastline to the west of Israel and on the most easterly shore of the Mediterranean sea. It is a cultural hub, immersed in rich and deep history. It is also home to HAR a five-piece Black Metal band that are just starting to stride onto the scene. Signed to BLOOD HARVEST RECORDS they released their first demo in August of 2019 following on from two previous EP's.

The artwork is confusing, the more one looks at it the more one begins to see shapes manifesting within its depths. This is a delicate and difficult effect to create and I must say that it is done very very well.

Opening the demo, we have its titular track "Ant Shechinah" which is slow to build and begin creating an effective atmosphere of dread. There is certainly a lot of promise to the music, following the idiosyncrasies of structure, timbre and overall effect that are so cemented to the genre.

Next comes "Bor" and here I began to become a bit confused. There almost felt to be a conflict of styles to the music, the structure was a bit jumpy with no real discernible direction. It felt as though this were five individuals doing what they each wanted to do as opposed to all pulling together to achieve the bands sound. This is not to say, however that the musicianship of each member is in question, there are flourishes of brilliance. I feel, however, that this requires a little bit of a polish and some finesse to really drive it forwards.

Finally, there is "Shachat". Which again takes its time to build, with heavy riffage and discord/dissonance throughout. I again feel as though it follows on in a same vain as "Bor".

Overall, there is a lot of promise to HAR, however I think some thought should be made to the bands style and direction. The music, to me, was much more of the Doom Metal stylings than it was Black Metal, which may have been part of the cause for my confusion earlier within the demo. I feel that HAR should take some time to define what is truly is they are so that they can move on and progress as a band with this much promise and potential should.