Howden, Matt – Hellfires

This is the second solo album of this talented musician, who became known through his work as a violinist for Sol Invictus. To my surprise this albums differs considerably from his debut ‘Intimate & Obstinate”. Mr. Howden thought it wasn’t enough to do just strings and electronica, so now he also sings and takes care of the drumming! Whereas his debut was an atmospheric, instrumental classical album, “Hellfires”, through the adding of vocals now contains some more real ‘songs’. Because of the often powerful drumming the album is more dynamic. The main resemblance with the first album is the constant high quality. The opening track is directly my favourite: the voice of Matt mixes very nice with the voice of his wife Jane, and the song culminates in a great climax. The album forms a whole, both musically & conceptually. The main theme is hell in its various appearances…