Austria is commonly associated with its beautiful lakes and mountains, but it is also known for great artists like Mozart or Falco. Furthermore, Austria is also famous for great black metal bands like Abigor, The Summoning or Belphegor, to name but a few and has also spawned good new black metal bands lately like Plaguepreacher, Synkende, Groteskh and many others. Another good band from Austria is Heidnir.
After releasing Von nächtlichen Erinnerungen in 2018, Andreas Krempler, the man behind Heidnir, released the second album Jenseits des Kosmos in 2022. It’s time to take a look at what lies beyond the cosmos and the realm of Heidnir.
The album starts really fast and aggressive with some blast beats before diving into some groovy melodic rhythm parts and then immediately blasting again. After about a minute the growling vocals set in for the first time, and they are rather reminiscent of death than black metal. In general, there are more death metal-like vocals than high-pitched screams on the album. The lyrics tend to be written in rhymes and deal with topics such as darkness, nature and transience. The sound in general and especially the vocals have improved significantly compared to Von nächtlichen Erinnerungen.
Fremde Kosmen, the second song, has a strong anthem vibe to it with guitar solos and great melodic leads. This one will be a banger at the next Heidnir show, for sure. All instruments on the album were recorded by Andreas himself. He is also the drummer of the Austrian black metal band Synkende.
Unter dunklen Sonne has clean guitar parts at the beginning and the vocal style with its high-pitched screams transmits a strong black metal vibe, but the highlight of the album is definitely the last song, Zu den Sternen. It combines everything that Heidnir stands for and is very versatile and catchy at the same time. The beautiful video to this song also premiered on Black Metal Promotion
If I had to voice one point of criticism, it would be that certain themes or guitar riffs are repeated too often on certain tracks. Sometimes less is more here. But apart from that, Jenseits des Kosmos marks a significant improvement compared to the first album, especially in terms of production, accuracy, and the vocals. So check out Heidnir and their last release. You won’t regret it.
CD & Digital Album available here:
Bandcamp: https://dunkelheitblackmetal.bandcamp… –
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Track list:
- 1. Der Meister schwarze Kunst
- 2. Fremde Kosmen
- 3. Im Zeichen des Feuers
- 4. Von schwarzen Tagen ward gesungen
- 5. Die gleißende Götze
- 6. Zwischen den Welten
- 7. Unter dunklen Sonnen
- 8. Toter Himmel
- 9. Zu den Sternen