Album Review: Exiled Hope – Apocrypha (Self Released)
Maryland-based blackened power metal artist Exiled Hope is all set for the release of Apocrypha, the third installment of its ongoing musical narrative, out on April 11th, 2025.
Multi-instrumentalist Sofia Frasz established Exiled Hope in 2019, and draws musical inspiration from the likes of Avantasia, Nightwish, Kamelot and Cradle of Filth to name a few. Exiled Hope’s releases all take place in the same fictional universe and combine to form a dark fantasy metal opera. Each album centers on a character dealing with both an internal and external conflict in this world, and the lyrics explore how they navigate those conflicts. This is intended to provide some kind of escapism through the lyrical world building, while still keeping the songs grounded in real, relatable emotions despite their fantastical setup.
Through Exiled Hope, Sofia has also composed music for two short films, Hallowed Paths and What Happens After Midnight, and has collaborated with UK melodeath outfit Steel Forge.
So far, in this world we have had the albums Exiled Hope and Angel of Greytown with Apocrypha coming soon. This twelve-track album follows a new protagonist who seeks guidance from familiar (yet otherworldly) forces as he uncovers the truth about the path to success laid out before him, further expanding the story Exiled Hope has crafted. It was hard work and a long but inspiring journey to create Apocrypha, as Sofia states:
“The release of Apocrypha represents 3 years of practice, exploration, trial and error, learning, and a lot of overthinking. I started working on this album in July 2021, then realized that I didn’t have the skills I needed to create the music I wanted to create. After I released “Dreamwalker” as a single in April 2022, I took a short hiatus from working on original music to sharpen up my skills, take lessons, and play around with making covers as practice. During this time, I also started law school, which was such a huge time commitment that I didn’t touch my guitar for the entire fall semester in 2022.”
Exiled Hope is Sofia Frasz on all instruments and all vocals.
Sofia adds:
“I can finally, confidently say that I have a cohesive work that I am proud of, after years of nitpicking it endlessly. The songs each have their own unique character, given the long time span over which I nitpicked and tinkered with them, but they also flow together like chapters in a book or scenes in a movie. That’s what I think makes a great album: songs that stand out on their own while carrying the album through their pacing and placement. Apocrypha feels detailed and relatable, yet larger-than-life, and I hope you enjoy the journey of listening to it as much as I enjoyed the journey of creating it. Creating music is about the journey as much as it is about the destination, or the final product.”
Apocrypha comes with 12 tracks on it, opening with The Summoning. It’s a strong opener, and a good showcase of what Exiled Hope is about, if you haven’t heard them before. Bringing a gentle, brooding melody in the intro with hushed operatic vocals. As it progresses, it transforms into a darker beast with blackened growls, heavy drums and crunchy riffs as the story starts and the protagonist’s struggles are laid out in front of them.
The Day Will Come and Blood of the Ancients keeps the story moving forward. The former bringing a lighter, catchier feel with cleaner singing, good energy and an infectious rhythm. The latter similarly keeping that vocal style and energy with a glorious layer of synth/orchestral adding depth and melody. The drums are decent and there are strong riffs and nice blasts of lead guitar melody but it’s that electronic line that slays here. That and the very cool solo.
Despite the more energetic feel, the lyrical content and general vibe is one of stress and struggle though Dreamwalker (featuring Metal Matt) changes things up a bit. It’s good to have variety and this track is definitely more on the “ballad” side of things with some really sweet orchestrals and melodies while both vocalists put on a good show of powerful singing and strong harmonising. I really like the solo again too – it fits the song and it’s mood very well.
Over For You is next up on Apocrypha and, after a gorgeous and calming orchestral intro, transforms into a much heavier and pacey affair. The vocals are good, the rhythm, infectious in a song that you will find yourself headbanging along to. Transitions from the heavier rhythms into a very folk instrumental is a surprise, but it works and adds another layer of creativity to an already creative album.
Altar Of Moloch (featuring Imperator Mortem) brings the blackened edge back in a big way with a beastly track. Harsh black metal vocals spit and snarl at us over a bed of tapping drums and orchestrals. It’s dark, sobering and atmospheric. There are changes across the song’s runtime with cleaner vocals joining for a time, more violins, and pace changes but it never strays away from it’s overall blackened vibe. It’s a very good song. Exiled Hope deliver the next step in the concept with a song representing a lovers quarrel, with two conflicting perspectives that create a sense of distance, confusion, and resentment. Musically, we get a creative song with some really cool riffs combining nicely with pianos. Lots of echo on the vocals add atmosphere in a sad and melancholic song that has a touch of groove, and doom to it and packs a really cool solo too.
Behold My Shattered Skies is quite different then to the rest of Apocrypha delivering a subtle song led by some great orchestration, plenty of synth and a heavier folk leaning. It still works though, and fits the concept. Apparently the song was inspired by The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt and it does pack a very impressive vocal performance. Deathslayer, by some way the longest track on the album, has a glorious extended musical intro. One of those ones where you feel like the music has words. A stunning combination of orchestration, drums and guitars with a dark and tense feel. As the song progresses we are treated to wonderful vocal contrasts with heavy growled sections, lighter cleans, choral vocals and layers of each. The switching is exciting all while the powerfully atmospheric music carries you along. It’s the epic of Apocrypha and is a seriously impressive piece.
We are nearing the end of the journey though, with Lightborn starting our final quarter. The energy raises massively in a song that champions quick beats, punchy riffs and soaring leads. The melodies are driving, the vocals powerful and emphatic. Exiled hope really get the adrenaline flowing here. Remnants then, our penultimate track, takes a different approach with a softer orchestral led song. It’s very listenable, engaging and atmospheric and being fully instrumental, and fully orchestral, acts as a nice palette cleanser too as we head into our final track.
That final track is titled Forbidden Majesties and it closes out Apocrypha nicely, bringing all of the styles and skills together into a final song. Strong orchestrals, clean vocals and a strong energetic beat drive us forward. The quick blasts of drums are cool, the riffs strong and it all combines nicely with the backing music. Transitions into darker vocals, punctuated by higher screams and especially in the layering of the cleans and harsh vocals works wonders. A slight folkish atmospheric slowdown keeps us engaged before a big close with layers of vocals adding emphasis before a neat little solo sees us out.
Exiled Hope once again demonstrate an immense amount of talent, variety and creativity across the whole of Apocrypha. Vocally impressive, with plenty of hard hitting riffs, beats and stunning orchestration, there is a lot to like and a lot of replayability here. If it suffers anywhere at all, it would be through the production quality which sometimes sounds a bit muddy. It does add a nice rawness to it, but when music is as layered as this, you need a bit more clarity to be able to fully hear and pick out the layers. Minor things though when considered across an album that is full of quality, clever storytelling and catchiness.
Tracklist:
The Summoning
The Day Will Come
Blood Of The Ancients
Dreamwalker feat Metal Matt
Over For You
Altar Of Moloch feat Imperator Mortem
The Silence Is Deafening
Behold My Shattered Skies
Deathslayer
Lightborn
Remnants
Forbidden Majesties
Exiled Hope Links
Bandcamp – Instagram – YouTube – Spotify – Apple Music – Bonfire
Author
Exiled Hope - Apocrypha (Self Released)
By Artist: Exiled Hope
Album name: Apocrypha
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The Final Score - 8/10
8/10
