Helevorn – Espectres

Band: Helevorn
Title: Espectres
Label: Meuse Music Records
Release date:  September  13th,  2024
Country: Spain
Format reviewed: High-Quality Digital Recording 

The thing is, how many times will I repeat this? “I don’t have time enough to listen to all the music I’d like to listen to, there are so many bands out there releasing great stuff and I can’t catch them all”… It has happened to me again. Helevorn is a band from Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands, and as they state in their official website, they have been “depressing the world since 1999”. Wow that’s a quarter of a century, not bad at all. Well I’ve noticed their existence 25 years after these guys founded the band, never too late I guess, and I must admit that the first song I listened to by them knocked me out. And it was not even from this new album…

That’s why I rushed over the promo when I knew it was available for a review. And, what to say… “Espectres” is their 5th full-length album, they have been releasing an album more or less every 5 years, and even if I don’t know their previous albums I can say this is an impressive one. They play Death/Doom Metal with some Gothic touches, and they find the way to imprint a very dramatic ambiance to their music. 

This is a highly emotional album, mainly due to the way they use the keyboards. With this instrument they create an eerie and gloomy atmosphere, they can depict a very sorrowful landscape and leave the listener frozen… literally. I feel my body numb and cold after listening to some passages, but not only for the synths of course. I also love the duality of vocals, how Josep Brunet (the only founding band member remaining) swift from harsh voice to some clean and melodic chants as the most natural thing in the world.

And the rest of the instrumentation is impressive as well. Some riffs are haunting me for hours, like in “The Defiant God”, and this song brings me great vibes from the 90s, it’s very special indeed. The bass and acoustic guitar and those clean piano notes used as a break in the middle of the song, the synth that goes like a veil of emotion that gets attached to your skin, the way that different kind of vocals are performed, and also dubbed… 

Synths have a great role in “Espectres”, as this is a Death/Doom/Gothic Metal album and this is mandatory in my opinion. For example, in “Signals” they open with a catchy melody while there’s a keyboard ambiance maintained all through the song, filling it with a mixture of emotion and high spirit (besides a great guitar solo!). But it doesn’t last, because “When Nothing Shudders” is a dramatic, sad and painful track in its first half, and becomes more forceful and intense in the second.

Drums do a fantastic work with the tempos, not just limiting to mark a slow pace all the time, but using plenty of different patterns. While some drummers show off their skills and speed abilities at blast beats, this guy’s superpowers are his restrained hits, slowly beating the snare, dragging the drum sticks over cymbals and toms and tearing away a piece of your heart. Because slow tempos hurt, even more when they are wrapped with beautiful melodies and vocals sounding both clean and rough depending on the passages…  

What I love the most about this album is its ability to move me, to put a tear in my eye, to make me feel numb. And also, the fact it is in constant change, going from the most delicate and fragile passages to a burst of heaviness in just one second. Fragility is given mostly by the enchanting synths and the delicate guitar parts when it plays isolated; while the most forceful pieces in the songs are due to the harsh vocals combined with the power delivered by drums (they count with Sebas Barceló from Trallery as a session drummer in this album); yes, drums can be really heavy at times.

Pay attention also to lyrics, ‘cause the subjects that these songs talk about and are dedicated to are also touching. Helevorn has released a round album, fragile, overwhelming, delicate but also strong, in all senses… My favorite track is “Unbreakable Silence”, maybe the slowest song in the album, and for me the most emotional.

If music was something physical, I wouldn’t dare to even touch the last track of this album with my fingertips. I’m sure it would break into a thousand tiny pieces. “Children of the Sunrise” is a delicate, fragile and ethereal composition that I listen to almost without breathing… The piano opens with a delicate vibe, and when the whispered voice enters I feel chills down my spine. It turns into a very melodic declamation afterwards, and the acoustic guitar gives the song a massive emotional burden. It leaves me frozen… even more that I was already. So, when the song explodes at the last minute, I’m still trying to put my pieces all together… There’s a stellar collaboration of Thomas A. G. Jensen (Saturnus) at vocals in this song, which makes it even more amazing… 

I can say it now, I’m totally in love with Helevorn. I give this album 9,5/10  Sílvia

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9,5/10  Epic Storm
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