Hexvessel - Nocturne

Hexvessel – Nocturne (Prophecy, 2025)

The musical journey of Hexvessel has been a fascinating one. The band led by Mat McNerney (Beastmilk, Grave Pleasures) originally emerged in 2009 as an acoustic ritual pagan folk project. Their debut album Dawnbearer was a peculiar blend of occult-tinged pagan folk and psychedelia, filled with a forest-bound, nature-driven atmosphere.

To be honest, it didn’t resonate with me at all at the time. I briefly checked out some of the later albums, but somehow I never quite connected with the world of Hexvessel. By the time of their third album the band had already begun drifting toward psychedelic rock and progressive influences. Vintage proto-rock riffs, krautrock-like textures and more adventurous songwriting slowly crept into their sound.

After five exploratory and stylistically adventurous albums, an unexpected turn came in 2023. Their sixth album, Polar Veil, marked perhaps the most dramatic stylistic shift in the band’s discography. While darker occult and psychedelic elements had always been present in their music, this record saw Hexvessel fully immersing themselves in the realm of atmospheric black metal.

Following the excellent Polar Veil, the band now returns with Nocturne, a record that clearly continues and further develops the path opened by its predecessor. There has always been a darker, occult undercurrent within Hexvessel’s music, and it is very much present here as well, now simply wrapped in a black metal cloak.

The album begins with a short piano intro already drenched in a heavy northern atmosphere. The first proper track, Sapphire Zephyrs, starts slowly and deliberately with an introspective, brooding mood before suddenly opening up into stormy northern black metal riffs, topped by Mat McNerney’s atmospheric clean vocals. Aside from the vocals, this eight-minute piece could easily fit on a Shining record.

For those unfamiliar with Polar Veil, the clean singing might initially feel unusual over such icy black metal foundations. Yet this contrast is exactly what gives Hexvessel much of its distinctive character.

The nine-minute Inward Landscapes begins with a riff so reminiscent of Burzum that one almost expects Varg Vikernes’s signature shriek to appear. Instead, McNerney’s calm and controlled voice returns. In the middle section the guitar work evokes the early albums of Ulver, before the song closes with a melancholic passage enhanced by cello.

It would be possible to go through every track in detail, as each one contains memorable elements of its own. Dark & Graceful Wilderness is a slower composition infused with cosmic ambient textures, while Spirit Masked Wolf bursts forward with instinctive, visceral riffing and memorable melodies — a true winter-bound black metal piece.

One of the most hostile and dissonant moments on the album appears in Unworld, which also features guest vocals by Vicotnik of Dødheimsgard.

Much of Nocturne is built on haunting, atmospheric second-wave black metal riffs saturated with northern mysticism and nature-driven atmosphere. Tremolo-picked guitar lines and blast beats frequently give way to slower, meditative passages, while subtle ambient and cosmic layers quietly float in the background.

The album’s sonic identity is a curious blend: it often feels as if black metal were colliding with the krautrock and psychedelia of the 1970s. One can hear the hypnotic circular riffing reminiscent of Burzum, the forest-soaked epic atmosphere of early Ulver, and an abundance of psychedelic and cosmic ambience woven throughout. At the same time, Hexvessel avoids the traditional lo-fi aesthetics of black metal in favor of a cleaner, layered production.

The closing track Phoebus perfectly summarizes the album’s atmosphere: icy northern moods, tremolo riffs, blast beats, dense guitar textures and epic, melancholic melodies. Many of the songs unfold over seven- to nine-minute structures, carefully built and filled with hypnotic repetition and trance-like pacing.

Listening to Nocturne often feels like wandering through a dark forest at night, meditating beneath a frozen northern sky full of stars, or roaming across a vast, eternal winter landscape. At times a strange comparison comes to mind: it almost feels as if Morrissey were singing in a black metal band. It may sound odd on paper, yet somehow it works surprisingly well.

For me, this ended up being one of the albums I listened to the most in 2025, easily making it my album of the year. It even sent me back to revisit Hexvessel’s earlier releases, which also turned out to contain a wealth of excellent music.

Those who listen strictly to black metal might find the band’s earlier material somewhat different, but the combination of Polar Veil and Nocturne is highly recommended.

rating: 10/10

by Rob, March 2026