Album Review: Green King – Hidden Beyond Time (The Sign Records)

Hidden Beyond Time is the debut album by Finnish heavy metal group Green King. Inspired by the many subgenres of heavy music, it will be released via The Sign Records on the 16th of December 2022.

While there is a ‘you never know what you’ll get next’ to Green King’s debut album, it is undeniably heavy metal. At its core, Hidden Beyond Time wants you to head-bang, it just so happens that Green King have a lot of depths to trawl to get that going.

Opening with a banger, Gates of Annihilation has galloping riffs, wicked harmonisation, punchy percussion, and spirited vocals. The perfect blast of heavy to get the fire well and truly stoked. Yet, it’s the following Godkiller that they really step things up with. A track that is rich in heavy detail, has anthemic groove and moves at an animated pace. It’s also a track that showcases layers in Green King’s sound as they move through the metal gears and draw from different eras and styles across its five-odd-minute runtime.

How do you follow that? By throwing out a short, but extremely haunting piece of melody in the form of Prelude to Massacre. Before the heavy metal vibes are brought back with aplomb on the fist-pumping Steel on Ice. One of the more ‘old-school’ sounding tracks on the album overall. Still, an absolute blast, none the less.

It’s another short one with Taunter’s Theme but here, the melody is folkish and picks up in pace. Ready for Green King to go into chest beating mode with Tervakiituri. A beastly set of guitars and drums gives this a thrashier flavour, the vocals growl with intent, and it has a blistering solo to cap things off.

Continuing to impress with the frenzy of metal that is Where Speedian Dwells, the album might be coming to a close but Green King have one more hefty and hench hit in their arsenal. It’s called Lifetakers and it is the most elaborate, thrilling and intense track of all. Where a near nine-minute length feels half that as the band keep engagement at a high. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll bloody well head-bang.

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