Today, Darkness Shall Rise Productions announces February 27th, 2025 as the international release date for a reissue of Hell Militia‘s cult-classic debut album, Canonisation of the Foul Spirit, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.
Hell Militia – an assemblage of the vilest and most depraved individuals the French underground has spawned who have earned themselves a bad reputation by participating in Mütiilation, Arkhon Infaustus, and Temple of Baal among others – burst onto the scene with their first full-length in 2005. Preceded only by an appearance on a split 7″ and a demo, the aptly titled Canonisation of the Foul Spirit was unleashed to wreak havoc and soil anything pure and holy in utter contempt. The album comprises 10 tracks (Psalms) with a professional but not-too-clean studio production, allowing for each instrument to be easily distinguished from one another without resulting in sounding polished or sterile. The riffs which are not too far removed from what one can hear on some of the albums the members have had a hand in and the quality of the songwriting disclose the fact that Hell Militia are anything but newcomers. The demented vocals that grace jolly carols like “Burning Human Pigs,” “Prophecy from the Mutilated Children,” or “Black Fucking Cancer” are cantillated by none other than Meyhnach from Mütiilation. Listening to him preaching the false gospel and spewing foul bile in his characteristic, unmistakable way of madness is certainly one of the highlights of Canonisation of the Foul Spirit.
Out of print for nearly 20 years, this reissue features an exclusive bonus track. Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Hell Militia’s Canonisation of the Foul Spirit
1. Psalm I – Burning Human Pigs 2. Psalm II – Torture of the Saints 3. Psalm III – Black Arts of Crime 4. Psalm IV – Prophecy from the Mutilated Children 5. Psalm V – Dead Children‘s Choir 6. Psalm VI – Black Fucking Cancer 7. Psalm VII – Blood from the Pig 8. Psalm VIII – Goathrone 9. Psalm IX – Ritual 10. Psalm X – Years Ago (Alice Cooper cover) 11. Black Arts of Crime (2024 re-recording)
French underground black metal band HELL MILITIA are now unleashing the second new song from their upcoming record ‘Hollow Void’. The track “Genesis Undone” is now streaming here:
HELL MILITIA comment: “The song is very much inspired by the world crumbling right below our feet. While the topic is nothing new, the results have never been so close. All that matters right now is to accelerate the end and welcome a lifeless symbol among the ruins.”
The band’s new full-length will be released via Season of Mist Underground Activists on March 18. Pre-orders are available HERE. Pre-save the album HERE.
The cover artwork was created by Manuel Tinnemans // Comaworx and can be found below, together with the tracklist.
Tracklist: 1. Lifeless Light (04:21) 2. Genesis Undone (04:22) 3. Dust of Time (05:47) 4. Within the Maze (04:09) 5. Hollow Void (04:57) 6. The Highest Fall (05:18) 7. Kingdoms Scorched (04:54) 8. Veneration (04:39) 9. Corruption Rejoice (05:50) Total: 0:44:17
Ten years have eclipsed since ‘Jacob’s Ladder’, HELL MILITIA’s last studio album. Black metal has wandered into unforeseen territory and simultaneously drifted back to its roots in that span, remaining entrenched as a polarizing but no less interesting force. Its increased visibility has become the carrot dangled in front of many bands seeking wider acceptance within the underground. But has also made it easier to identify the bands who, fundamentally, will forever uphold black metal’s venerable tenets of darkness and Satanism. Therefore, it is with little surprise that HELL MILITIA have risen to the occasion with their fourth long-player, ‘Hollow Void’.
HELL MILITIA’s absence can be explained through a mix of personal and intra-band turmoil. Line-up changes included members literally disappearing to the other side of the world. Vocalist RSDX went missing in action after his life took a dark turn. Side musical projects and new life endeavours eventually put the band on hold. But when HELL MILITIA (who are completed by guitarists Arkdaemon and Saroth, bassist S. and drummer Dave Terror) regrouped in 2018 for a few selected live shows, it helped lay the foundation for what would become ‘Hollow Void’.
As is now customary, the pandemic delayed the album’s recording. The band was rehearsing in Paris when global lockdowns began. And since some members of HELL MILITIA reside outside of France in Sweden and the Netherlands, it meant they had to wait out the first wave of the pandemic to start tracking later in 2020. HELL MILITIA eventually entered Studio Saint-Loup outside of Paris in the fall of 2020 to lay down drums. Additional instruments, vocals, and mix and mastering were conducted with producer/engineer BST at BST Studios through the summer and fall of 2021. According to RSDX, the tumult of recent years, the pandemic and real life’s comings-and-goings were perfect ammunition for ‘Hollow Void’’s creation.
“The whole recording process took longer than expected, but as life took its turn straight up until the vocal recordings, the timing was exactly what it needed to be,” he says “A lot of these experiences were included in the lyrics, giving an honest reflection of what was going on. Bitter days, unshakable religious faith, death, contempt for life, urban filth and an even more bitter aftertaste turned into the toxic cocktail we called ‘Hollow Void’. Still, the pent-up energy increased to a point it just had to explode. We put all that energy back into the album. Now that everything is recorded, we await the date we can unleash this on this world. We will keep the energy at this level until it’s time we can perform it.”
The resultant effort is perhaps HELL MILITIA’s most strident effort to date. The band’s orthodox, unrelenting approach is a broadside to the black metal scene at large. Dense chord swaths, a whirling barrage of blast-beats and RSDX’s nihilistic, scathing vocals coalesce into an album that exploits the true nature of black metal: Savage, unforgiving and grim.
“We wanted to make a much more aggressive approach this time,” confirms the vocalist. “A true-to-form, punch-in-the-face comeback album. We wanted to combine the dissonant riffs of ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ with the raw and filthy sound of our first album, ‘Canonisation of the Foul Spirit’ and include some new elements. I think we succeeded in this, as it is much more raw, aggressive, yet catchy and 100 percent recognizable as HELL MILITIA.”
The events of the last few years provided no shortage of lyrical topics for RSDX. The nihilistic, unforgiving concepts heard on the band’s previous full-lengths remain very much intact, albeit coming across far more prescient in a world on a fast-track toward its own demise. However, RSDX notes that his lyrics on ‘Hollow Void’ are a combination of him looking inward as well as outward toward a world that fills him with disgust.
“The lyrics are the universe of HELL MILITIA, and at times, also a diary of all events of the last couple of years,” he says. “It is a summary of bitter days, fanatic unshakable religious faith, urban filth, decay, death worship and an extremely bitter aftertaste. It has traditional Satanism and a contempt for life at its very core.”
Indeed contempt, Satanism and a total disregard for human life have been the primary thread of HELL MILITIA’s musical output since they emerged on the scene in 2001 via the ‘SPK Kommando – We Hope You DIE’ split alongside fellow French black metal holdovers Antaeus, Eternal Majesty and Deviant. The band’s lauded and influential ‘Canonisation of the Foul Spirit’ would follow four years later, establishing HELL MILITIA as one of the leading purveyors of the 2000s French black metal wave. 2010’s ‘Last Station on the Road to Death’ and 2012’s ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ followed, bringing them even closer to black metal’s true, raw spirit. As evidenced by ‘Hollow Void’, the last ten years have done little to HELL MILITIA’s approach.
“We are still the old, bitter radical individuals whose masks are off,” closes RSDX. “What the scene does is of no concern or interest to us. We are in contact with bands and individuals we respect. The rest of the world can keep their watered down, non-ideological form of black metal. Black metal to us means the same as it did when the band was founded: A vessel of strong expression in music and ideology with unshakable faith at its very core. If a band doesn’t have that, it’s not black metal. I may approach life differently now that I’m in my 40s than when I was in my 20s, but the attitude and radical stand on what black metal should be has not changed.”
After nearly a decade of silence, French underground black metal band HELL MILITIA have now returned with a brand new album, titled ‘Hollow Void’. The first song of the new record is now streaming at the official Season of Mist Youtube Channel. Feast your ears upon“Dust of time” here:
The band’s new full-length will be released via Season of Mist Underground Activists on March 18. Pre-orders are available HERE. Pre-save the album HERE.
The band comments: “10 years have passed since the release of ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ and the more things change, the more things stay the same. “Dust of Time” is the first song to be presented and it is a diary of all events that took place in the years that have passed since. It is a summary of bitter days, unshakable religious faith, urban filth, decay, death worship and an extremely bitter aftertaste.”
The cover artwork was created by Manuel Tinnemans // Comaworx and can be found below, together with the tracklist.
Tracklist: 1. Lifeless Light (04:21) 2. Genesis Undone (04:22) 3. Dust of Time (05:47) 4. Within the Maze (04:09) 5. Hollow Void (04:57) 6. The Highest Fall (05:18) 7. Kingdoms Scorched (04:54) 8. Veneration (04:39) 9. Corruption Rejoice (05:50) Total: 0:44:17
Ten years have eclipsed since ‘Jacob’s Ladder’, HELL MILITIA’s last studio album. Black metal has wandered into unforeseen territory and simultaneously drifted back to its roots in that span, remaining entrenched as a polarizing but no less interesting force. Its increased visibility has become the carrot dangled in front of many bands seeking wider acceptance within the underground. But has also made it easier to identify the bands who, fundamentally, will forever uphold black metal’s venerable tenets of darkness and Satanism. Therefore, it is with little surprise that HELL MILITIA have risen to the occasion with their fourth long-player, ‘Hollow Void’.
HELL MILITIA’s absence can be explained through a mix of personal and intra-band turmoil. Line-up changes included members literally disappearing to the other side of the world. Vocalist RSDX went missing in action after his life took a dark turn. Side musical projects and new life endeavours eventually put the band on hold. But when HELL MILITIA (who are completed by guitarists Arkdaemon and Saroth, bassist S. and drummer Dave Terror) regrouped in 2018 for a few selected live shows, it helped lay the foundation for what would become ‘Hollow Void’.
As is now customary, the pandemic delayed the album’s recording. The band was rehearsing in Paris when global lockdowns began. And since some members of HELL MILITIA reside outside of France in Sweden and the Netherlands, it meant they had to wait out the first wave of the pandemic to start tracking later in 2020. HELL MILITIA eventually entered Studio Saint-Loup outside of Paris in the fall of 2020 to lay down drums. Additional instruments, vocals, and mix and mastering were conducted with producer/engineer BST at BST Studios through the summer and fall of 2021. According to RSDX, the tumult of recent years, the pandemic and real life’s comings-and-goings were perfect ammunition for ‘Hollow Void’’s creation.
“The whole recording process took longer than expected, but as life took its turn straight up until the vocal recordings, the timing was exactly what it needed to be,” he says “A lot of these experiences were included in the lyrics, giving an honest reflection of what was going on. Bitter days, unshakable religious faith, death, contempt for life, urban filth and an even more bitter aftertaste turned into the toxic cocktail we called ‘Hollow Void’. Still, the pent-up energy increased to a point it just had to explode. We put all that energy back into the album. Now that everything is recorded, we await the date we can unleash this on this world. We will keep the energy at this level until it’s time we can perform it.”
The resultant effort is perhaps HELL MILITIA’s most strident effort to date. The band’s orthodox, unrelenting approach is a broadside to the black metal scene at large. Dense chord swaths, a whirling barrage of blast-beats and RSDX’s nihilistic, scathing vocals coalesce into an album that exploits the true nature of black metal: Savage, unforgiving and grim.
“We wanted to make a much more aggressive approach this time,” confirms the vocalist. “A true-to-form, punch-in-the-face comeback album. We wanted to combine the dissonant riffs of ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ with the raw and filthy sound of our first album, ‘Canonisation of the Foul Spirit’ and include some new elements. I think we succeeded in this, as it is much more raw, aggressive, yet catchy and 100 percent recognizable as HELL MILITIA.”
The events of the last few years provided no shortage of lyrical topics for RSDX. The nihilistic, unforgiving concepts heard on the band’s previous full-lengths remain very much intact, albeit coming across far more prescient in a world on a fast-track toward its own demise. However, RSDX notes that his lyrics on ‘Hollow Void’ are a combination of him looking inward as well as outward toward a world that fills him with disgust
“The lyrics are the universe of HELL MILITIA, and at times, also a diary of all events of the last couple of years,” he says. “It is a summary of bitter days, fanatic unshakable religious faith, urban filth, decay, death worship and an extremely bitter aftertaste. It has traditional Satanism and a contempt for life at its very core.”
Indeed contempt, Satanism and a total disregard for human life have been the primary thread of HELL MILITIA’s musical output since they emerged on the scene in 2001 via the ‘SPK Kommando – We Hope You DIE’ split alongside fellow French black metal holdovers Antaeus, Eternal Majesty and Deviant. The band’s lauded and influential ‘Canonisation of the Foul Spirit’ would follow four years later, establishing HELL MILITIA as one of the leading purveyors of the 2000s French black metal wave. 2010’s ‘Last Station on the Road to Death’ and 2012’s ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ followed, bringing them even closer to black metal’s true, raw spirit. As evidenced by ‘Hollow Void’, the last ten years have done little to HELL MILITIA’s approach.
“We are still the old, bitter radical individuals whose masks are off,” closes RSDX. “What the scene does is of no concern or interest to us. We are in contact with bands and individuals we respect. The rest of the world can keep their watered down, non-ideological form of black metal. Black metal to us means the same as it did when the band was founded: A vessel of strong expression in music and ideology with unshakable faith at its very core. If a band doesn’t have that, it’s not black metal. I may approach life differently now that I’m in my 40s than when I was in my 20s, but the attitude and radical stand on what black metal should be has not changed.”
