Hekatoxen have put out Grave Reveries, the second song to be lifted from Obsidian Majesty, through a premiere at Toilet Ov Hell.
The album has been out since 2 October on Nuclear Winter Records, on vinyl and compact disc, which makes this a late single rather than an early one. Lost Souls Epitome came first and opens the record. Grave Reveries is track six of eight.
What they play is Finnish death metal in the oldest sense: riffs sharpened rather than thickened, tempo changes used as punctuation, and nothing in the arrangement that could not be played on a stage. The Utter Darkness EP in 2022 was the rough version of the same idea.
The band formed in Tampere in 2020 around Jussi Rinta-Kiikka, who sings and plays lead guitar, with Niko Talpio on rhythm guitar and Risto Räkköläinen on bass. Vesa Nikkinen took over the drums last year from Saku Koski-Vähälä.
It is their first album and the label have been on it from the start.