Italian Heruka started back in 2000, but have been truly active since 2018, when their debut album 'Deception's End' saw its release. Heruka's style is black metal with both modern and archaic vibes in it.

They stay away from epic song-lengths, which is very much okay by me. I mean, why cram loads into one massive song, as one can have more songs with them parts, and often it results in more coherent songwriting? Well, often, not always... In Heruka's case the results of shorter songs are catchiness and variety. This has been the ongoing trend since the debut album.

Heruka's black metal is semi-melodic. There are easily memorable, hummable choir progressions, as well as lead guitar bits. The riffage sounds sharp, but not quite hornet buzz -like, and there's slithering-style playing, too. The intro establishes ominous and chilling atmosphere with its screaming human voices and acoustic nylon string guitars. Atmospheres vary. There are folky/viking style vibes, which makes one see a farmer trying to hoe frozen soil; It's truly Nordic-sounding, sometimes reminding of Windir, at other time, of Dissection, but never being straight copying. 'Murrain' (antiquated word literally meaning "death") contains some harpsicord playing, bringing that baroque feeling into the song. There's some piano in one of the songs, but basically they are just for flavoring. The last track is the Italian version of the title song, so there's practically 21 minutes of new music on here.

The vocals are lacerating, shouted throat rasp. They are very powerful and declamatory, finely adjusted for perfect suitability for each of the songs. This EP has an open concept: Death. Sickness, how it feels to die, lying in a casket when paradise wasn't there. And the truth, that it is inevitable. These lyrics will not brighten one's day, that's for sure.

The production is organic. It's both trebly and bassy. The rhythm section sounds really great. The bassist is like Steve Harris of black metal; he does very fast stuff, and also plays adventurous stuff and melodies (check out 'Murrain' for that). The drummer does loads of blasting, but also slower beats, without sticking to just a few styles.

Heruka feel like a fresh breath of miasma in black metal world. Their music is gripping, catchy and quite unique at times. It's by no means poppy in structure, but is definitely discomforting and raw-ish. If you want something a bit different for you black metal snack, try this!

Rating: 8 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
07/09/2020 21:30