‘A neo-fascist state disguised like democracy, On the backs of the oppressed there’s always opportunity, Violence, injustice, these are state run industries’ (Service State)

Austerity has become one of the defining aspects of capitalist society, despite never having succeeded even on its own warped economic terms.  But the slow violence it unleashes has proven both highly predictable and uniformly destructive.  It entrenches existing wealth, punishes the already marginalised, and incubates the conditions for an authoritarian turn.

Hekátē hail from Athens, with Greece having been subjected to a particularly brutal austerity package as part of the country’s 2015 financial bail-out.  The repercussions of this – poverty, insecurity, far right extremism – form the central focus of the album, captured with particularly bracing velocity on the uproarious Service State as it deconstructs the trail of destruction in blackly acerbic style.

Μαύρη Τρύπα (Black Hole) is the band’s second full-length and follow-up to 2020’s Μέρες Οργής (Days Of Wrath).  The strident, semi-shouted vocals, which alternate between Greek and English, together with the throbbingly resonant bass lines bring to mind 1980s’ UK anarcho-punk and are fused with crisply precise drumming and synths in the vein of more contemporary post-punk.

With no guitar in play, the synths carry the melodic weight, segueing from the jauntily skittering to the more coldly anthemic, and providing space for the band’s wider instrumentation to punch emphatically through.  An atmosphere that is fuelled in equal parts by a sense of melancholic despair and defiant rage unfurls, sweeping from the woozily gothic opener Εμφύλιος (Civil) to the darkly brooding Βουβές Φωνές (Silent Voices) and swirling Δίνη (Vortex) to insidiously catchy effect.