Mystic Circle - Hexenbrand (2025)

Since their 2021 return, Germany’s Mystic Circle has come back with a vengeance, releasing several full-length albums. With “Hexenbrand”, their latest effort, the band returns with their explosive Melodic Black Metal onslaughts for over 45 minutes in ten masterful tracks. Featuring an old-school sound with modern production values, the band creates very theatrical and playful atmospheres along the way.

The release blasts away with the superbly melodic “Luciferian”, setting a very engaging and crafty pace. Pummeling through “The Scarlet Queen of Harlots” and its lush atmospheric arrangements, “Boogeyman” with its playful interludes, and the melancholic “In the Sign of the Goat”, the band takes the listener back to the early days of the genre, when bands like (early) Cradle of Filth, Hecate Enthroned, Theatres des Vampires and Agathodaimon were starting this subgenre of Black Metal.

The duo behind the band, Aaarrrgon and Graf von Beelzebub, have perfected how to make songs engaging, bombastic, and heavy, producing excellent head banging anthems like the blistering “The Bible of Witch Chase” and its playful tempo changes. Our favorite track in this release has to be the mellow “Blutschande Unzucht Sodomie” with its crafty guitars and psychosexual atmospherics.

Overall, “Hexenbrand” showcases Mystic Circle’s ample creative abilities and that they probably had a great deal of material ready before their latest reunion. Every single album they have put out since then has been bombastic and explosive, and this is not the exception. If you are feeling nostalgic to the early days of Melodic/Symphonic Black Metal, this release will certainly bring back some memories.

Label: Reigning Phoenix Music

Release: October 31st, 2025

Genre: Melodic Black Metal

Country: Germany