According to the promo, “Hiraeth” is a Welsh description of pain: “…a mixture of longing, referring to the sense of homesickness tinged with grief and sorrow over the loss. A yearning for that which has passed.” Mask of Prospero channel this grief into their sophomore effort Hiraeth, crisp metalcore weaponized with progressive metal to a complex and atmospheric degree.” The misery shows.
One thing that I love about heavy metal is that every time you think you have a pretty thorough knowledge of the overall scene, some band you never heard of slithers out of some crevasse and bites you in the ass. Sweden’s Netherbird is just such an ass biter and their second full length, Monument Black Colossal seemingly came out of nowhere and surprised me with some impressively done melodic black metal, despite the really crappy band name and nonsensical album title. What is it with Sweden and metal these days anyway? That place is crawling with quality, ass biting bands!
