Edifice

The second album by New Zealand’s Heresiarch titled “Edifice” is a continuation of their relentless and uncompromising black/death metal that they’ve been belching out since their formation in 2008.

Seven years is a quite a lengthy gap between two albums, which begs the question: was it worth the wait? A resounding YES. The latest album is an all-out barrage of apocalyptic violence, featuring ten tracks of caustic black/death metal cut from the same cloth as compatriots Vesicant, Diocletian and Witchrist, but also featuring trace elements of bands like Conqueror and Angelcorpse.

From the music to the themes to the art, Heresiarch casts a dark shadow over the listener, offering no relief from its ferocious and unrestrained sonic assault that makes the earth tremble and the sky turn black. The emphatically aggressive vocals that lead the charge are utterly scornful, adding a crucial facet to their sound that is part of the reason the music is so relentless. A strong vocal presence is important if you want to pull off this style properly. The rapid execution of the instruments and pulverizing drums send the listener into a state of shell-shock as the music blasts over you in blitzkrieg fashion with uninterrupted hostility and maximum force.

“Forged Doctrine” inaugurates the madness and wastes no time laying down the law with a maelstrom of chaos and savage rhythms, while the following (and shorter) “Manifest Odium” has an Incantation-esque twang before “Noose Upon The Abyss” completely blusters you into submission with its resolute discharge of mayhem and blunt-force heaviness.

Not only is "Edifice" profoundly crushing but it also flawlessly performed, which is complemented by a production that I might add is perfect for this style; it has a natural sound but also enhances the performance as a whole and gives it an audible quality. As for the artwork, I’m not going to lie, I absolutely adore the cover. It has a sort of totalitarian, post-apocalyptic setting and fits the music well. Tempo-wise, the album ranges from pounding mid-tempo rhythms to faster sections, but also slows down at the appropriate moments, showing their penchant for doomier nuances.

"Edifice" is one of the most punishing albums of the year, so there’s no doubt in my mind that the seven years since their last album have been absolutely worth the wait as this is easily the best release they’ve put out until date.

Over the course of the last decade, Heresiarch have proven to be one of the most interesting names in the modern war metal scene - first with their hellish, insanely raw first EP (2011's "Hammer of Intransigence"), then with a massive debut album (2017's "Death Ordinance") that showed some glimmers of musical evolution in the sound of this unstoppable war machine from New Zealand (whose various lineups have included members of important compatriot bands such as Verberis and Diocletian). Seven years have already passed since then, and now Heresiarch is finally back with their sophomore effort "Edifice", which does nothing but confirm the band's evolution towards a darker, more nuanced and atmospheric musical style, not always inclined towards straightforward violence - though you can still find a lot of that too.

These songs are still pretty fucking violent, indeed. Drums blast through with the usual fiery intensity, only pausing for the occasional deflagrating break between a verse and the other, always perfectly synchronized with a form of riffing that remains quite muscular and straightforward at its core (best examples in this regard are found on tracks such as "Tides of Regression", "Gloryless Execution" and "Swarming Blight"). And yet, all the songs bear a more outwardly dark, spectral, contemplative vibe, not too far removed from the feelings conjured by modern dissodeath staples such as Ulcerate - still, without this component taking over the music entirely at the expense of aggression, consistency and dynamism in the riffing.

When an extreme metal band attempts to inject atmosphere in their sound, the risk of falling into the so-called realm of "sonic wallpaper" is always around the corner. Heresiarch manages to avoid this pitfall by using atmospheric elements only sparsely, during finely selected strategic points in the riffing; as a result, instead of feeling monotonous and droning, the music manages to feel even more dynamic and lively than it was on "Death Ordinance". The spectral, abstract-sounding chords tear through the monolithic, mammoth-like blackened death metal riffing from tracks like "Noose Above the Abyss" and "Gloryless Execution" as light pouring through the cracks of a massive construction, almost suggesting something more sinister and atavistic lurking underneath the pragmatic brutality of a war-torn world. The fast-paced riffing then breaks down in slow, dissonant interludes with tremolo or arpeggiated riffing where the Ulcerate influence comes through more apparently.

I don't think I might be reading too much into it, when I say the entire album almost feels structured like a tragic narrative of war and loss, where blasting violence leaves increasingly more and more room to a feeling of defeat and emptiness. Opening track "Forged Doctrine" blasts forth with straightforward, monolithic impetus, but some abstract/dissonant riffing does already start shining through, suggesting a bitter undercurrent to the whole scenario; the thick, dense, sulfur-like atmosphere is then reinforced by the short doomy piece "Manifest of Odium" - so sinuous, and yet so suffocating. From then on, the following tracks get increasingly more brutal, more militaristic and yet more chaotic in their indecisive, schizophrenic display of concrete aggression and otherworldly atmosphere, both at the same time. Things start becoming more clear with "Tides of Regression", which starts with a very slow, sinister, memorable motif: from then on, the pitch-black, nightmarish atmosphere gets more cohesively intertwined with the merciless blasting, reaching its apex during what's probably the album's darkest song out of all, "A World Lit Only by Fire". The underlying darkness has now been revealed, and it's finally unleashed to wreak havoc on the final three tracks: the fast-paced, short-but-sweet "Mystic and Chaos" shows the most blatant use of Ulcerate-like dissonant/spectral riffing up to that point, while "Hubris and Decline" is a doomy instrumental carried by some rather funereal, bitter-sounding melodies, paving the way for the massive final piece "Militate Pyrrhic Collapse" - which, as fast as it might be, sounds more restrained and hollow than any previous track, closing the record with a catastrophic feeling of bitter resignation and tragic defeatism, vaguely reminding me of Disciples of Mockery's 1999 masterpiece "Prelude to the Apocalypse".

"Edifice" is definitely not an easy record: it might sound overly monolithic upon first listen, and its multiple nuances might be hard to catch and focus on properly amidst all the blasting chaos. In short, it feels pretty much as dark and hard to grasp as its pitch-black cover art suggests. If you, like me, are more on the side of raw, unhinged old school head-bashing (Sodom/Sarcófago style), you'll definitely need quite a few spins to truly get immersed into "Edifice"'s thick, dense hermetic, intransigent wall of sound - but all things considered, I think it's worth the effort. This is not atmosphere for atmosphere's sake: Heresiarch is definitely an ingenious band who clearly spent time studying the works of older black/death metal staples, and whatever route they're choosing to pursue now, they're doing so without forgetting said lessons. Extreme metal is a language through which any concept can be communicated very powerfully and effectively; it just needs to be mastered with enough skill and confidence, and "Edifice" is yet another example of that.

Published in Italian language on Black Metal Ist Krieg webzine.