It has only been a while since I reviewed PEST's really good new album Rest In Morbid Darkness. The French label Season Of Mist Records strikes back and takes over my CD player with one more piece of uncompromising Black Metal. The black horde has been unleashed and darkness has already started taking over everything. Decide whether you want to join them or die in pain...

Born in the mist of 1996 (as their biography mentions), HEGEMON (doesn't it look like Pokemon?) have always followed their own path without caring for anybody or anything. We have heard all those things before. The band has already released two demo tapes and two full-length albums, and now it is time for them to unleash their third work with the help of the French underground activists.

HEGEMON's Black Metal is kind of weird, since these guys have mixed many different elements and I still haven't managed to call them traditional, experimental, melodic or any other style. The band has combined MAYHEM's haunting Black Metal manifesto with acoustic guitar breaks that reminded me of what DISSECTION used to do, while adding some Thrash touches here and there. At first I was just listening to the album without any real excitement, but as time went by, I found more elements that make Contemptus Mundi a complete Black Metal album that will definitely satisfy fans of the genre and make us hope for great things from this band.

I will try to avoid getting too excited and I will wait for this band's next step. So for now I will just suggest this album to all Black Metal fans and I will keep listening to it while discovering even more exciting things in HEGEMON's music. These guys managed to keep a perfect balance between he Swedish and the Norwegian Black Metal sound and I believe that this will become on e of their strongest weapons.