Hexenbrett’s Happy Haunting

Horror is paradoxically uncool: the elements of horror are ubiquitous and mainstream, and yet the genre itself remains insular and weird, the torch passionately carried by modern directors like Robert Eggers and by underground musical gems like Hexenbrett (“Witch/Ouija Board” in English). We know little about the duo behind this German metal band, Josto Feratu and Scarlettina Bolétte, whose names deliberately evoke imagery of reclusive and mysterious decrepit barons in a Gothic castle in Eastern Europe. Their full-length debut Zweite Beschwörung: Ein Kind zu töten (2020) — German for Second Summoning: Sacrificing a Child — demonstrates Hexenbrett’s reverence for the uplifting and absolutely fun ways horror imagery can be interpreted. 

Musically, Hexenbrett embodies an alternate history wherein black metal was born directly from the influence of the darkest, most theatrical heavy metal artists, King Diamond chief among them. There is an intentional lack of any Scandinavian influence in lyrical content and musical motifs. Across 7 songs (not including interludes), Hexenbrett sings and titles songs in six different languages: German, Czech, Spanish, English, Italian, and French, with the odd Latin phrase technically increasing the language count to 7! Hexenbrett cannot make it clearer that they wish to eschew the burden of the 2nd wave of black metal that brought the genre international infamy than by plainly ignoring that region. Instead, Hexenbrett revels in the spooky theatrics of horror media and exults in the passion intrinsic to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM), expressing their love for sweet, melodic guitar leads popularized by the kings of the above movement, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.

The atmosphere of this album can most succinctly be visualized by the I Spy Spooky Night picture book I owned as a child. There is no doubt that this is a Halloween album — spectral synth-choir vocals texture practically every chorus on the album, while glockenspiels and haunted bells form the driving melody for several songs. Album closer “Le Requiem des vampires” exemplifies the creativity that make for such a unique experience. From the psychedelic guitar leads in the bridge to the bombastic and intensely melodic solo that caps the album, this song is packed full of the musical inventiveness that make Hexenbrett so exciting. Speeches delivered in the verses of “Attraverso Sette Porte All’Inferno” (‘Through Seven Doors to Hell’) over sinister and dissonant guitar give way to pit-stomping riffs and guttural ad-libs. The raspy vocals carry a sense of danger, but there is a discernible triumph in the cathartic release of tension in the chorus of lead single and album opener proper Lass schlafende Leichen ruhen (‘Let Sleeping Corpses Rest’). This trend of eerie pressure and ecstatic crescendo is not entirely dissimilar from the satisfying climax of a classic Scooby Doo or Courage the Cowardly Dog episode. There is nothing new about mixing the occult with black metal, but Hexenbrett has achieved an entirely novel creation focused on the spine-tingling fun of campy horror art; the kind of darkness you experience in a haunted house with friends. 

The album does not deviate much from the unique formula they establish on the first song, but the intensity of darkness ebbs and flows like any well-told story so that the whole thing feels brief even for its officially concise 38-minute runtime. Hexenbrett’s debut album is a thoroughly engaging romp through a deliberately campy frightful heavy metal release that should appeal to anybody with a passion for the B movie aesthetic, or an interest in an alternate universe where black metal was dictated by worshippers of horror schlock instead of worshippers of Satan.

Article by Tyler Harding