Hagetisse
De Vermikte Stilte Van Het Zijn (brown)
Limited to 125 copies on brown marble vinyl. Maurice de Jonghs (Gnaw Their Tongues, Golden Ashes, Mystagogue, .) most mature black metal album to date according to himself. With sixth album De Verminkte stilte van het zijn, de Jong returns Hagetisse to a black metal sound simultaneously more traditional and original. With the title translating to English as ""The Mutilated Silence of Being,"" De Verminkte stilte van het zijn is the first Hagetisse album completely in Dutch. The lyrics deal with existential dread, death, religion, grief, and devastation, and the album has thus become a very personal album for de Jong. Hiding in plain sight is the struggle with someone's past in relation to the here and now, and musically, Hagetisse makes this manifest with a richly ripp(l)ing meldodicism that's at once sorrowful and strident. The songwriting subsequently sees de Jong at his most straightforward and to-the-point, fearing not the often-thorny catchphrase of ""catchiness"" nor sacrificing any aggression in the face of that overt melodicism. As such, de Jong considers this album to be a new height in his songwriting and lyrical skills, and he is not wrong: ""mature"" is a word that comes to mind, as does timeless. Hail Ancient Black Metal!