Pánico al Miedo – Formador
12th September 2018
In Tenebriz – Winternight Poetry
14th September 2018Symphony of Symbols – Historiociticism
Label: Metal Scrap / Release Date: 10th August 2018
Symphony of Symbols is a Hungarian six-piece, one that could celebrate its twentieth anniversary last year, having seemingly spent the majority of their early years honing their craft and perfecting their own sound – Which, incidentally, would seem to be the first instance that I have ever come across of a Black and Death Metal blend.
Despite their impressively low discography (as of this year counting one Demo and two Full-length releases), they have nonetheless managed to demonstrate through Historiocriticism that they certainly know their way around their instruments, as well as have a clear concept and goal as their driving force, musically speaking. Indeed, their newest record is an impressively one hour long of unrelenting, powerful blast beats coupled with distorted guitars and short, catchy rhythms – A prime example of ‘the best of both worlds come together’ when thinking about the two genres that the band successfully managed to fuse together.
This, brought together with the statements I claimed above, gives the impression that Symphony of Symbols is a live act that prefers quality over quantity; Releasing only a small amount of material which they can instead be proud of. And given the fact that they spent almost a decade as a band before releasing their first Demo, one can (and in my case, will) assume that they spent the time as a live act – Something that would attribute to how well they handle their instruments and seemingly play together.
The one draw-back for me, however, is the fact that these days, many bands have a very similar sound to Symphony of Symbols – Maybe not as clearcut, but with a similar baseline concept and sound somewhat reminiscent of the one found on Historiocriticism. True, this does mean that it should (and most likely will) appeal to a larger fan-base, it also means that it, for me, lacks anything making it truly memorable and unique.
That being said, if I ever get a chance to see these six Hungarians live I will jump at the chance – The highly energetic performance on tracks such as “Beyond Earth” is very contagious, and screams for a live performance.
