heavy-metal-darkness: Hadopelagyal | Haematophoryktos

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Hadopelagyal | Haematophoryktos | Amor Fati

Release Date: 19 September 2025

Format: CD, Vinyl LP

Genre: Black/Death Metal

Country: Germany

Label: Amor Fati Productions

Hadopelagyal formed in Germany in 2020, emerging from the underground with a vision rooted in abyssal black and death metal. The duo quickly attracted attention through their debut “Nereidean Seismic End,” released in 2021, a work that established them as a band channeling the crushing enormity of the deep sea into sound. Their music is often described as suffocating, vast, and otherworldly, combining ritualistic black metal with chaotic death metal currents. With their second album, “Haematophoryktos,” released through Amor Fati Productions, Hadopelagyal descends even deeper into unlit waters, delivering a work that continues their fascination with abyssal imagery, cosmic violence, and the raw sound of subterranean chaos.

“Haematophoryktos” is not an album that provides comfort. It thrives in obscurity, building an atmosphere of overwhelming depth where guitars grind and swirl like collapsing tides, and drums pound with a primal violence that mimics tectonic forces. The sound is cavernous, drenched in distortion and echo, as if performed inside an ocean trench. Vocals emerge like guttural howls from below the surface, an instrument of ritual.

The eight tracks here bleed into each other with an unrelenting sense of descent. Opener “Swarthseleniasmos” throws the listener into chaos immediately, and from there the album sustains a balance of aggression and atmosphere, where riffs collapse into churning repetition and bursts of violence are framed by droning, cavern-like resonance. “Promulgating Haematekchysia” and “Litany Of Saltridden Exudate Under Theosectrian Tides” hammer forward with furious precision, while tracks like “Halios Enthroned In Hyperdiluvian Kataklysmos” sprawl into near ten minutes of abyssal ritual, closing the album with waves of crushing dissonance.

The sound is uncompromising, raw, and suffocating, maintaining a ritualistic pace that makes the album feel like a single plunge into darkness. The riffs are often obscured beneath layers of distortion, but this is intentional, creating the impression of sound as a physical environment, not just a series of notes. The percussion is relentless, ranging from blast-driven chaos to slow, pounding rhythms.

This is an album that demands to be experienced as a whole. It thrives on immersion, rewarding listeners who are willing to surrender to its oceanic violence and its cryptic, almost liturgical presentation. “Haematophoryktos” is not about melody or hooks, it embodies endurance and atmosphere, summoning the sound of drowning in cosmic blood tides. Hadopelagyal has crafted something punishing and hypnotic, a ritual of death and abyssal worship.

Score: 7.8