{"id":105545,"date":"2025-10-03T00:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T23:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=105545"},"modified":"2025-10-09T11:59:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T10:59:29","slug":"ep-review-agartha-the-hidden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/ep-review-agartha-the-hidden\/","title":{"rendered":"AGARTHA – The Hidden EP (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

AGARTHA
\nThe Hidden EP<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNo Remorse (2025)<\/span>
\nRating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Six years after forming, the ex-Grave Ritual and Abysmal Lord duo of Ryan Evans (vocals) and Jeremy Berry (guitar and drums) bring forth The Hidden<\/em>, a rather emphatic return that gets the heart thumping, the swords clashing and the flags waving.<\/p>\n

If you like metal such as Eternal Champion then I have no doubt that you\u2019ll be more than happy to gallop along to this latest release from New Orleans, Louisiana-based Agartha. After a cinematic intro, \u2018Silver King\u2019 majestically strides like a sublime mix of Iron Maiden, Mercyful Fate and the aforementioned Eternal Champion. It\u2019s confident and anthemic as Evans commands the audible stage, booming out his tales amidst a tidy, mid-tempo slope.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing overtly fancy going on here, just traditional heavy metal recycled from halcyon days, but what I really like about the EP is its grittier edge. There\u2019s a brace of songs in the centre, \u2018The Hidden\u2019 and \u2018South Flight\u2019, which boast more of a New Wave Of British Heavy Metal-style. They are slower but darker, bereft of glint and instead bringing a stormier and sturdier march.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Hidden\u2019 is built on a stark hard rock riff and stripped back drum, while the vocals have more of an obscure echo as if Agartha have just stepped out of 1982. It\u2019s such a cool organic song though, mirrored by the plodding \u2018South Flight\u2019. This time the vocals have a bit more of a scowl and the drums bring extra punch, although the demo-styled rawness gives the twosome a British sound. \u2018Into Hyperborea\u2019 drips with Gothic nuances where again there\u2019s that rainy yet ancient effect going on as the vocals flirt with new wave tendencies.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a strong Iron Maiden-like melody throughout, the duo really tapping into and channelling that early 80s mood, subtly tip-toeing over punk, gothic and new wave with an intriguing end result.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AGARTHA The Hidden EP No Remorse (2025) Rating: 7.5\/10 Six years after forming, the ex-Grave Ritual and Abysmal Lord duo of Ryan Evans (vocals) and Jeremy Berry (guitar and drums) bring forth The Hidden, a rather emphatic return that gets the heart thumping, the swords clashing and the flags waving. If you like metal such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5982,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agartha","category-album-ep-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105547,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105545\/revisions\/105547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}