Fresh from being labelled as ‘Review of the issue’ in the current issue of ZT, we present for your listening pleasure the entire Scythian ‘Hubris in Excelsis’ album, available from Hell’s Headbangers.
SCYTHIAN are both obedient to and defiant of metal tradition, for in their world, there are “no gods / no masters” – only the power of the will, and the iron-fisted hand that wields it. They’ve harnessed such a power with the aid of Esoteric’s Greg Chandler, who recorded and engineered Hubris in Excelsis at his Priory Studios, with mastering by Mithras’ Leon Macey at Dreaming Studios. Altogether, it’s a recording rich with confidence and color, vigor and violence, sweat and celestial space. Completing the totality of Hubris in Excelsis is the cover (and interior) art painted by esteemed underground artist Blanka Dvorak, which is rich with imagery influenced by morbid, dystopian sci-fi and resonates with the album’s latent lyrical themes.
From the micro to the macro, above and below and beyond, SCYTHIAN have reached a startling maturity with Hubris in Excelsis, and their coming of age begins here. Prepare for the grand reckoning as tyrants feast…
