Epic thrash metal… that means epic orchestrations, but mixed with fast thrash riffs. Or Not is definitely unique with that. They just released the title track for their upcoming album Violence & Grace. The band also published a live video to go with the track, so we can experience their stage energy as well. Go check out the video on Youtube and listen to their tracks on Spotify.
Sometimes you have an album where you just have to drop everything and sit down to listen. Architect of Chaos is one of those records. I often listen to an album several times before starting the review, and especially the first few times I heard this record, I really took the time to sit down and listen. There are so many layers and interesting riffs in it that to get everything out of it, you really have to listen carefully. It’s also very nice when an album grabs you so much that you put everything aside just to listen to music. That actually says enough about the quality of the band. Let’s dive into Architect of Chaos together.
HESKEN draws inspiration from various bands, and that inspiration is definitely audible in Architects of Chaos. Dream Theater is clearly present, but Tool, Gojira, and even Thy Art is Murder make appearances at times. The sound is grungy, crunchy, and fortunately NOT as polished as it sometimes sounds in some other productions. However, that doesn’t say anything about the level of instrumental mastery of the band, which is truly on another level and surpasses many bands.
HESKEN manages to blend their progressive influences well with (old school) death metal and other genres, producing a very unique sound. Meticulously crafted and polished, because it sounds like every note on this album has been carefully placed.As befits prog, there are only six tracks on this album, with Dawn of the New Age being the shortest track at just under 5 minutes. In total, the album lasts over 45 minutes.
The album starts calmly with the intro track of The Seeker. After about a minute, the track really begins, with the crunchy guitars of the main riff. However, this track remains mainly groovy, a bit on the slower side, and may even be considered a power ballad. With this track, HESKEN immediately sets the tone by adding some strange progressive breaks halfway through.
With Fearful Leaders, the album really kicks off. The tempo suddenly becomes much higher. The guitar gallops and tight double bass, the clean, strange time signatures lean towards the modern-metal corner. There are even some actual BLEGHS in there. However, with the gritty vocals and guitar melody in the chorus, HESKEN gives it a completely unique twist. It’s quite impressive to completely stop halfway through the track and add an instrumental break. The build-up to the end chorus creates an emotional rollercoaster, making this track one of my favorites right away.
With Conspiracy, HESKEN shows that Gojira and Tool have certainly influenced this album. However, we also clearly hear the Dream Theater influence in the pre-chorus. As for the progression of the album, Conspiracy leans more towards the groove and mid-tempo. However, this is still a heavy track, especially the pre-chorus. My favorite part of this track is the As Above – In between – So Below section halfway through. Harmen also demonstrates his ability to grunt deeply on this track. During the break, we’re treated to a display of instrumental skills from both the guitarists and the bassist. Even vocal harmonies are included, so not only Harmen but also bassist Marijn shows how versatile they are.
Dawn of the New Age is the first track heard from this band, as it was released online as a YouTube clip last year. This first introduction to HESKEN immediately made me curious, especially because it’s clear from the first notes that we’re dealing with a prog band with unusual time signatures. The Dream Theater influence is strong, but it’s well-inspired and clearly not a copy.
Desolation is the longest track on this album at 9.24 minutes. This is again a diverse but above all heavy track. At times, Harmen’s gritty vocals remind us of Chester Bennington. The rhythm for the pre-chorus again reminds us a bit of Conspiracy. However, then follows the most iconic guitar riff of the album, which they then play an octave higher, making it even cooler (kudos to Sven). There’s plenty of room for each instrument to shine on this track. My only feedback for this track would be that there might be a bit too much repetition in the first half of the track, and without that, the track could have been a minute or a minute and a half shorter.
Architects of Chaos ends with Curtain Call, probably the heaviest track on the album. This is definitely the track where the audience goes wild during a live performance. It’s still progressive, but in such a way that it really hits hard. This is probably also the most death-metal track on the album. I’m especially glad that HESKEN kept Architects varied because although this is very cool, I wouldn’t want to miss a track like Conspiracy.”
Architect of Chaos is a great debut album from HESKEN. Progressive metal is a hard enough genre as it is, but to display this level of skill in both songwriting and instruments is seriously impressive. HESKEN brings progressive (death?) metal in a way that’s easy to get into for people who aren’t into progressive metal. My favorite track of the album is probably Desolation, although Fearful Leaders and Conspiracy are pretty high on the list as well. But Desolation captures everything HESKEN stands for, so if you’re only going to listen to one track, maybe it should be this one.
You can find HESKEN on their website, on Facebook, or in our database.
More exciting news from Changing Tides! Not only did they win the Guts & Glory battle and will be performing at Jera on Air, they’re also releasing a single with the other epic Core act from the Netherlands: Reformist! This track is bound to be a banger if you’ve got these two bands working together!
There will be a guitar playthrough and a lyrics video for the track later this week as well, so stay tuned!
ANNOUNCING THE DEBUT ALBUM: VIRTUES OF THE VILE
Unveiling “Virtues of the Vile,” Release the River’s debut full-length album, a sonic odyssey merging hardcore breakdowns, black metal blastbeats, and death metal grooves. The album shall emerge after the summer’s light dies in september 2024.
“Virtues of the Vile” delves deep into the darkest aspects of the human experience, drawing listeners into a realm of existential despair and spiritual turmoil. The lyrics explore themes of inner conflict, forbidden desires, and the consequences of unchecked greed.
Produced mixed and mastered by our own Mark Bos who did a magnificent job in guiding us into this next level of the blackened deathmetal powertrio.
Artwork made by the wonderful @mordiggianart who encapsulated the ominous vibe of this album.
The first taste shall come in the form of our new single ‘Enthralled’ releasing this Wednesday the 24th of april. Presave NOW via this link.
Their first show ever was at the preliminaries in De Pit, Terneuzen. The Finals yesterday at Estrado Harderwijk was their 4th show in front of an audience. They had no social media, only a few pictures, no music online. Between the preliminaries and the final, the band managed to record and release not one, but two singles on the day of the final. Oh, and did we tell you the average age of these guys is 17!!!
Inherited shows us the scene definitely isn’t dead. They brought a touring car with 90 fans to the battle, which made the venue more packed with teenagers than we’ve ever seen at a metal concert. Seeing these young guys not only win but create a community around their music gives me high hopes for the younger generation.
The win was definitely earned. Though they might have been nervous, once they hit the stage, they looked like a well-oiled machine. That might also be dedication because they were in the studio rehearsing the morning of the finals. These guys have tons of energy, are highly skilled and their songs could have easily been written by the seasoned veterans in the scene. They mix groove and thrash metal (think Machine Head meets Slayer) and THEY GO HARD.
Stay tuned for more photo’s and video’s of the night, and an interview with these guys.
Last Sunday, Bildtstar performed in Iduna, Drachten. With a lot of shows under their belt and their debut album dropping the 26th op April, it was time to have a little talk with these guys. We had Jose live at the venue to take some amazing pictures to go with these questions. Let’s get to know these guys a bit better, and maybe they’ll tell us what we can expect of their album release show the 27th in Neushoorn, Leeuwarden!
See all the pictures of the show below the interview.
Simon – That depends on the show. Sometimes we have multiple shows in one day. We meet up at the studio where we rehearse to drink some coffee, and load in our gear. Get our stuff to the venue. Sometimes it’s plug ‘n play, and then we play, put everything back in the car, and onto the next. Sometimes we get to drink a beer after the show.
In terms of people being late, it’s probably me, the vocalist. I think vocalists are always a bit later.
Simon – I think the only pre-stage ritual that we have; sometimes we give eachother a hug. But most times we just drink a couple of beers. I as a singer like to warm up, but that’s about it.
Simon – I think the secret to getting the audience in a good vibe is experience. We’ve played over 150 shows now. When you just start out, you might be a bit shy on stage, you don’t know what to do. But there comes a certain point where you realize you are in control, you need to be in control of the audience. From the first moment, if you flip that switch in your head, running on stage shouting ‘Are you ready to rock’ then you have ‘em. Then you’re in a certain flow. And I think that’s a key factor in getting the audience going.
Simon – I discovered that I really love to play with the crowd. We have multiple times in our show where we play with the crowd, and get them to sing along. I love it when you can warm them up. You start with a more familiar song, and it’s easy to sing along. Then there comes a certain point in the show where you get everyone to put their hands in the sky, screaming ‘Hey, hey’. That’s stage two.
And then at a certain point, we go to one of our own songs, ‘Burning After Midnight’, we released that two months ago, and then you say ‘Okay, now I know you guys can sing, let’s do this one together’ and then you tell ‘em what to sing. I go one, they go two, I go one, they go two. And then they all know what to do and they sing. And I love it. It’s such an amazing feeling if people are singing along to your own songs.
And sometimes that even happens naturally, people just start singing. Which is really cool. They sing along and they scream and go crazy. That is a huge boost for the band. That’s what keeps us going, to give more and more and more, and put up the best show we can.
Simon – There once was a festival where we played with a couple of other bands. And in the middle of the show, someone walked up to the stage with a big present in their hand, and we opened it up and it was a big diamond painting of us, a gigantic diamond painting that she made of a photo of us. And she worked on that for almost 3,5 months to give it to us at that show. And I almost started crying at that moment, it was very special to see people do that, they do that for us, you know.
That same show, like 15 minutes later, another person walks up to the stage, next song, and she comes out with a hand-drawn painting of our logo and everything that she had been working on for two months. And that was the same show and I was like, what the f**k is happening over here. So we are getting it more often that people are bringing presents to the stage, and that’s very nice.
In almost every show things go, and will go wrong. Small things, big things. I remember there was an outside show and we were headlining. And it was raining like hell. And at a certain point all the electricity cut out. So we didn’t have any electricity anymore to play the show. So, I went with my acoustic guitar in front of the stage, and I did Freddy Mercury’s ‘Ey–ooo, Ey – oo’ interacting with the crowd, make them sing. Luckily the electricity came back on, but then it happened again, almost three times that show. So we would stop, 3, 2, 1 there we go again. It became almost like a game. And afterward people said we handled that very professionally, with the crowd and everything. It’s just, don’t stop. Always keep on going.
All I can say about our album release show is that it’s the biggest show that we have done until now. It is a very, very big production. With lots of fire, special effects, a lot of things happening on stage. Very professional, big, new songs. You don’t want to miss this one, it’s going to be very, very nice!
Check out Bildtstar on their Facebookpage, and make sure to catch them at their album release show! More info on the releaseshow can be found here.
All pictures were taken by Jose Luis Ferreira.
We had to wait for it a while, but Dear Mother finally released their EP ‘Necessary Darkness’. After releasing the singles Unbreakable, Wildfire and Threads, Delusion is the final track to complete this EP. Check it out on Spotify, or see the band live during one of their EP release shows.
You can find Dear Mother on their website.
Je twee-wekelijkse uurtje metal van Nederlandse bodem is terug. In deze editie van de tiplijst weer 10 nieuwe tracks. Ik wilde eigenlijk nog een 11e track toevoegen van Sietse de Krieger, maar helaas had ik echt geen tijd meer deze editie, dus je weet in ieder geval wat er de volgende editie als eerste op de planning staat. En wellicht ga ik volgende week wel weer een tussendoor editie opnemen in plaats van gewoon weer over twee weken, want er staan al weer behoorlijk wat tracks in de lijst voor de komende tijd! We will see. Hou de socials in ieder geval in de gaten voor updates.
Tracklist:
Salvage – Currents
Out of the Blue – Deadbeat
Permeator – Wake
HESKEN – Desolation
Gallamesh – Stingrays
Dead Head – Caverns of Fate
Another Now – Would it kill you
Colombian Necktie – Nameless
Dance with Dragons – The Key
Zieldoder – Be Silent Like The Night
Check de tiplijst hier:
Of check m op Youtube als je me wil zien meeschreeuwen
After the release of ‘The Weakest Predator’ in collaboration with Sugar Spine and Vincehatred, Dutch modern metal guitarist Sietse de Krieger is back with his latest release,’ The Worst,’ in collaboration with fellow Dutch solo artist Daniel Brooke. ‘The Worst’ features a unique blend of modern metal with an electronic approach, not only in the instrumental aspect but also in vocal production.
The Worst” (lyrics written by Daniel Brooke) portrays a struggle between conflicting emotions and identities. The figure feels torn between past and future, grappling with internal battles and uncertainties. Despite acknowledging personal flaws, there is a challenging journey towards self-reflection.
Born on May 22, 2002, Sietse de Krieger is a young emerging artist in the metal scene, known for blending electronic elements within modern metal. Inspired by bands like Northlane, Polaris, Spiritbox, and Bring Me The Horizon, Sietse’s sound definitely falls within the Modern Metal genre, but with a twist!
Check out this (and previous) tracks on Spotify
Not one, but two new bands emerged with a split album released by Zwaertgevecht this week. Two new Dutch Black metal bands, Zieldoder and Magistraal, collaborated to release a split album. Zieldoders’ part of the puzzle is called ‘Be Silent Like the Night‘, and Magistraal delivered the Fantoom of the Deemsterburcht. You can order the split on Vinyl from Zwaertgevegt here. Follow these bands on their socials for more info!
Be Silent Like The Night contains four tracks and is just over 20 minutes.
Magistraal’s part Fantoom Van De Deemsterburgt has three tracks, with just over 20 minutes as well, because the second track Mijn Branded Licht is an epic epos of 11 minutes.
