Band: Bosse-De-Nage 

Album:  Hidden FIres Burn Hottest

Genre: Black Metal/Post Hardcore

Country:  USA

Label:  The Flenser

Released:  2026

Introduction

Today’s review is a very special one as we have an album 8 years in the making, Hidden Fires Burn Hottest from American weird black metal legends Bosse-De-Nage.

 Hidden Fires Burn Hottest

Tracklist:

1. Where to Now?

2. Mementos 

3. In the Name of the Moth 

4. With a Shrug 

5. No Such Place

6. Triangular Dream

7. Underwater 

8. Frenzy

9. Immortality Project 

10. Leviathan 

Rumination

With 8 years away between releases Bosse De nage has come back with hands down their greatest release.  For those uninitiated, since the early 2010s Bosse-De-Nage has been making some of the most uniquely profound black metal (infused with post hardcore and all sorts of other weird vibes).  

Bosse is a band that to me was 

1) tarnished by the cringe cultural warfare of being lumped in with post black metal early on

2) never really granted the recognition they deserved for being so innovative. 

Bosse-De-Nage is the epitome of doing whatever and not caring about how it looks. The music they write speaks directly to the era/pathway of music i’m into so it honestly just feels made for me (if you came up early on with bands like Slint or Orchid or Paleshorse you get what I mean).

On this album the band really seems to have landed at the perfect balance point of their earlier more f*cked up stuff and their previous release further still (which was a concerted effort the band to be more catchy). I seriously can’t explain how this band managed to go back to being weirder than before but also has evolved into being the best version of themselves. Start to finish there's no dull tracks on this. 

One thing the band has always tapped into is this very visceral understanding of the loneliness that connects everyone and the nature of people thats either repulsive with hints of beauty, beauty with hints of repulsion, repulsion trying to cope with its own disgusting nature as beauty or something similar. It just nails a part of the human condition down to its core in a way that I've never felt from other bands. Which in a strange way kinda makes things feel more connected and authentic. 

I think the reason people gravitate towards this band is because if being black metal was being authentic and true to yourself, then that would likely generate sympathy from similarly wired people, and no band has ever channeled this feeling in a way that feels so directly and unabashedly targeted toward them. 

Conclusion

 So unless something miraculous happens i don’t think anything will top this for album of the year. I’m biased because this has been one of my favourite bands forever, but the fact they came back after such a long hiatus with what is objectively their best release to date really doesn’t seem like much else will stack up to this. 

BMZ Rating: 10/10 

Support the band here

https://bosse-de-nage.bandcamp.com/album/hidden-fires-burn-hottest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPPWfaJqAnU&list=RDvPPWfaJqAnU&start_radio=1

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