Blåkulla's Meadow Official Music Video
We take our initiation deeper into The Poison Path as we observe the Witches Sabbath within a great meadow whereof you can see no end. We pray for flight from cenote catacombs and join the Devil’s daughters to commit venerous and carnal acts among toads and serpents.
~ Currently in Cadaver Audio writing and recording new material. ~
Bio
Like the enigmatic & deadly winter flower from which the project takes its name, the ancient Greeks called the Helleborus “the plant of fauns”. Heavily influenced by the Orphic Mysteries, traditional western witchcraft & folklore. The band pushes the exploration of orthodoxy black metal into the uncharted territory of sensual duality with a focus on occult herbalism & sexual mysticism. Following the debut release ‘The Carnal Sabbath’ & the liminal single ‘Prayer Of The Undying’, HELLEBORUS have now released their sophomoric work ‘Saprophytic Divinations’. Saprophytic a term given to fungus or plants whom grow or eat from decaying matter. We explore the concept of prophecy or divine communications blooming from the macabre.
Shared the stage with:
Cannibal Corpse, Dark Funeral, Septicflesh, Taake, UADA, Sacramentum, Cattle Decapitation,
Panzerfaust, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Amorphis, Swallow The Sun, Profanatica and more.
Festivals Appearances:
Gathering of Shadows, Shadow Woods, Black Mourning Light, and 71Grind and more.
HELLEBORUS IS…
Jerred C. Houseman • Guitars & Arrangements
S. Wyatt Houseman • Voice & Esoteric Agenda
Ivan Alcala • Drums
Matt Maio • Guitars & Rhythms
Joe Niski • Bass
Reviews & Features
KERRANG PREMIERE
Feed The Night A Sacrifice In Their NSFW New Video
The band stage just such a scenario in their latest video for the track Blåkulla’s Meadow, from their upcoming sophomore album Saprophytic Divinations. Directed by Guilherme Henriques with art direction by Catarina Rocha, the video shows a lone magus of sorts wandering into the forest at night, gathering herbs and nocturnal plants before hailing the moon over a blazing fire. Unfortunately for him, the moon answers in ways that he may or may not have expected, and the night takes him. Naturally lit and carefully paced, the footage is reminiscent of Robert Eggers’ The Witch, right down to the NSFW climax.
METAL INJECTION FEATURE
HELLEBORUS Among The Top Tracks of the Week
Fantastic to see USBM done with such true worship of not only it's sonic power but its roots and folklore. Hailing from Colorado Springs, Helleborus' latest 'Saprophytic Divinations' (Redefining Darkness label), surprised me with it's unique vision and distinct poetic nature while still adapting familiar and tried-and-true formula. Vocalist S. Wyatt Houseman guest DJs on Gimme this Friday, reairing Sunday and Monday if you want to take a glance into Helleborus' musical influence and DNA.
Youtube Review
E-Sin Metal Monday
“Saprophytic Divinations” undisputedly one of 2019s best metal albums. Just calling them a black metal band would be a disservice to the band. They incorporate liberal amounts of death metal to their sound, especially the more cavernous style of early death metal. The album wastes no time presenting this unique blend of alchemical song writing.
Blessed Altar Zine
Review: 9/10
The band is not just a band in that sense, but a union that is kept together even when the members go off into the passes where everything sounds like complete chaos because it does not get out of hand. I’m sure this will (if not already) be appreciated by fans of more traditional metal as well as this is a musical journey, not just a way of listening to a bunch of songs one after another.
Metal Head Spotted
Best Albums Of 2019 #25 of 50
“Saprophytic Divinations” is shattering culmination in black metal evolution. Helleborus can effectively capture a pristine essence of bloodthirsty transcendent abandon, disenchanted delirium, or perhaps even a very inhuman strain of mystical experience. Album Review 4.9/5
CVLT NATION PREMIERE
Hear the seething black metal of HELLEBORUS “Alraun Ghost”
The cult of vileness that is HELLEBORUS have an offering in the works, and it will raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Saprophytic Divinations comes out December 6th via Redefining Darkness Records, and it’s got what I need – unrelenting blastbeats, epic breakdowns, addictive groove and vocals that sound like they’re being delivered from a slashed throat. Helleborus makes black metal for foraging and doing pagan sex rites to – they are heavily influenced by occult herbalism and sexual mysticism, and the title of their sophomore album references organisms that feed off of decaying organic matter. What can be created from death and decay, but everything?
ALBUM OF THE YEAR (Michael Hojjatie)
Via Omega Magazine
Wanted to wait until the final day of the year, in case any amazing albums were to come out last second. My Album of the Year for 2019 goes to HELLEBORUS for Saprophytic Divinations, hands down. Oh sure, I may have scored a few albums higher and there were albums from Pissgrave, Diocletian and Teitanblood out as well, all of which appeal much more to my sensibilities. However Helleborus took me completely aback with this release and it’s immersive, obsidian black and incredibly thick atmosphere that to me defies the often laughable sub-genre name game and has all the requisite machinations of pure metal, with dalliances in the occult, mania, narcissism, deviance and retribution. Hey, this isn’t meant to be nice or safe music nor has it ever been. And yes, it’s plenty symphonic without sounding like a fantasy film’s soundtrack, in fact it’s a VERY dark and foreboding type of symphonic! This by and large gets my highest possible recommendation and I would like to wish the band godspeed and much success!
Mister Samhain's Favorites of 2019
#3 Album of the Year
The Houseman Brothers really stepped it up with their second full length album under the HELLEBORUS banner. Symphonic black metal that brings a lot of atmosphere to the table and plenty of hooks. The final two songs appropriately wrap up the album. More polished than the previous, Carnal Sabbath, and that album was pretty good by itself. Saprophytic Divinations is better.
DECIBEL MAGAZINE PREMIERE
Full Album Stream
Black metal quartet HELLEBORUS have an ear for the epic, something they demonstrate frequently on new album Saprophytic Divinations. Throughout the record, Helleborus unleash a particularly icy strain of the genre, building a foreboding and sinister atmosphere.
NO CLEAN SINING PREMIERE
“SAPROPHYTIC DIVINATIONS”
Wyatt Houseman‘s voice is a frighteningly powerful presence in the song, but he is surrounded by the equally powerful contributions of composer/guitarist Jerred C. Houseman, new drummer Brent Boutté (ex-Uada), and bassist Ian Horneman. The piercing, unnerving guitar arpeggios and gloomy bass tones that begin the song create a frightening harmony, generating tension and fear, undergirded by methodically gut-punching drumwork and fronted by those truly terrifying vocals, the kind of serrated-edge roars and howls that seem a hybrid of tyrannical imperiousness and throat-tearing bestiality.
Interview with Vocalist S. Wyatt Houseman
Via Omega Magazine
An agonizing, brutally brilliant spiral down the abyss of sociopathy, misanthropy, sexual degeneracy and general scorched-Earth nihilism, “Saprohytic Divinations” by Helleborus ended 2019 with a seismic wave and quickly became my favorite album of that year. It did take a handful of listens to completely be taken in as its elaborate and labyrinthine style of complex dark metal can overwhelm and soothe the listener into the most ecstatic, masochist mental space. Vocalist S.W.H. was kind enough to bless me with his time as I asked him my standard dozen questions about this choir of the damned and the deranged. And we had us some fun.
Hated One Metal
Reviews 9.75 / 10
From spectral start to funereal finish, Saprophytic Divinations is a melodic black metal masterstroke. Stark and lugubrious, expansive and unrepressed, this entire album is A-plus grade material. Some of the finest cuts on this killer album include the opener “Celestial Grave”, the deliciously dissonant “Devil’s Garden”, the mind-bending brutality of “Juniper Shrine”, and the sepulchral sounds of the closing title track, “Saprophytic Divinations”.
Metal Trenches
Review: 8.7 / 10
"Nocte Amans" in particular really got my motor running. Furthermore the vocal performance is just...utter perfection. Every aspect from the particular choice of phlegmy snarl to the very deliberate cadence seems carefully crafted to oppress the listener into submission. And as if these more obvious elements weren't enough on their own, the use of synths and copious bells take the atmosphere to new heights.