Released: May 2, 2025
Power sounds good in extreme metal. War drums, massed guitars, and a commanding voice can turn domination into spectacle before the lyrics say a word. On Bellum Regiis, Hate use that attraction against itself. The grandeur keeps coming, but grief stains almost every victory. Can an album about the lust for power expose its cost while making power sound so seductive?
The title track establishes that conflict immediately. Eliza Sacharczuk’s clean voice enters over restrained guitar and orchestration, giving the opening a mournful tone before the full band takes over. The guitars move between long tremolo lines, dissonant leads, and blunt rhythmic jabs. Nar-Sil’s kicks remain sharply separated beneath the layers, allowing the song to sound enormous without dissolving into noise. ATF Sinner delivers short, declarative phrases. Each one lands like an order.
“Iphigenia” places a victim inside that spectacle. Its main drive is slower, built around a punishing half-time rhythm with rolling drum fills and tremolo guitar moving around it. Acoustic sections briefly open the arrangement before the main riff returns. The lyrics present sacrifice through Iphigenia’s acceptance of death. In the Greek passage, she names death as her marriage, her children, and her glory. Sinner gives the words authority while Domin’s melodic lead keeps the tragedy in view. The empire gains its symbol, and the person inside that symbol disappears.
“The Vanguard” shows what power sounds like once sympathy is gone. One of the album’s fastest songs, it locks a broad melodic black-metal riff against Nar-Sil’s blasts, then drops into a heavy bass-drum pattern beneath the refrain. Domin’s solo flashes through the center without slowing the advance. Sinner uses Scythian conquest as his example, and the music turns invasion into organized movement: rapid, disciplined, and indifferent to whatever lies ahead. The excitement becomes uncomfortable once its purpose is clear.
That tension also shapes the sequencing. The first four songs all run past six minutes, giving the riffs time to return in altered forms. “A Ghost of Lost Delight” breaks its attack with slower passages, a stuttering guitar figure, and a lead that hangs over the double-kick churn. The ninety-six-second “Rite of Triglav” then divides the record with ritual vocals and pounding drums. “Perun Rising” picks up that pulse through military toms and a more open guitar pattern before settling into a mid-paced stomp. Ritual becomes a marching order.
David Castillo’s mix makes those details easy to hear. Tiermes usually locks tightly to the rhythm guitars, though the bass chug pushes closer to the surface in “Prophet of Arkhen.” Michał Staczkun’s orchestration and samples hover around the edges, adding scale without smothering the riffs. Sinner’s voice also keeps its roughness. He clips some lines into commands and stretches others into a rasp, while Sacharczuk’s appearances expose the sorrow hiding beneath his authority.
“Ageless Harp of Devilry” pulls the argument together through mechanical riffing, colder tremolo passages, and a final turn toward the album’s black-metal side. Can Bellum Regiis make domination seductive and still expose its cost? Yes. Hate make the scale attractive, then attach it to Iphigenia’s sacrifice, Sacharczuk’s mournful voice, and the steady return of marching drums. Every display of command leaves evidence of what it consumed. By the time the final tremolo line cuts out, the crown has become impossible to separate from the bodies beneath it.
Written by Rob Joncas for DeadNoteMedia.
Artist information and music courtesy of the band.
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