Hasufel – Forlorn
2.12.18 by Ryan Masteller

Didn’t Hasufel just release a tape, like, a minute ago? You leave these black metal nerds on their own for a second and they keep pumping out that black metal nerd stuff as if their lives depended on it, don’t they? For all we know, their lives DO depend on it. Do NOT underestimate the power of music. Of any kind.

“Forlorn” picks up where “Lord of Carrion” left off, an unholy (you’re going to hear that word a lot in reference to Hasufel) offering to dark entities bent on mischief but who we look to when our lives need meaning and we can’t find that meaning anywhere else. (Why is it that demons and devils are the only ones that listen to us? Why?!?) Perfectly encapsulating the mood of the tape, “Forlorn’s” title track conjures feelings of loneliness, sadness, despondence, abandonment, forsakenness, hopelessness, desperation, and other words I found in the thesaurus. (Thanks Roget’s!) But with tracks like “Ossuary” and “Ziggurat,” the idea of self-importance (even if after death) lingers like a giant granite chip on the shoulder of a pissed-off minor deity. “The Darkness on the Hill” is just the beginning of YOUR JUDGMENT.

As Hasufel, synth slinger Dylan Ettinger has hit that super sweet spot where camp runs together with the actual dark arts so that you don’t have to bust the tape out on Halloween only. He meets us all at the intersection of Bauhaus and Xasthur like a high priest with a wicked agenda or a minor deity with a giant granite chip on his shoulder, ready to lead us in death chants and ominous hymns. We the pliable supplicants are ready and willing to do thy bidding, my master.

“Forlorn” is out on El Tule (Spanish for “the Tule,” I think), but that link takes you to Discogs. You’re better off clicking the Bandcamp link to buy one of these sweet EPs, limited to 100 copies. Don’t sweat what you heard, but act like you know.