Thursday, February 24, 2011

ΗΕRETOIR - HERETOIR (2011)

genre :shoegaze, post-black
similar bands :Alcest,Fen, Les Dicrets
origin : Germany
strong spot : the lyrics are not in French (like Alcest)
weak spot :

The circle of bands that play this kind of style is slowly getting bigger and bigger. Well, I have studied some things about musical composition, so allow me to judge this album from a composer's perspective. The music is quite pleasant and trippy, the production fits perfectly, the vocals are desperate and passionate. But this shoegaze post-black  usually includes 'easy to compose'songs. Don't get me wrong, I like some of these bands (Alcest, Les Dicrets, Amesoeurs, Lantlos) but I think all of their albums are mediocre when talking about musical composition. Believe me, it is very easy to play slow or mid-tempo parts full of  minor/major chord progressions that are overused in non-metal genres. The arrangements are also very typical and very common. As a result, the music sounds stale and flat and all these bands sound exactly similar to each other. Who can tell the difference between Lantlos and Alcest or Heretoir? Septicflesh, to give you an example, use their own characteristic chord progressions and orchestrations, their compositions have clever chord progressions, changing of tone or scale in the right time, diverse orchestrations etc etc. I am sure that a composition professor would rate Septicflesh with 8 and Alcest with 3 or 4. By reading the above, you can figure out my point of view about Heretoir's album, which I enjoyed but I doubt that this can last. Last note: I exclude Fen from what I said above, they are seemingly a similar band but their music is much more advanced and sophisticated. They are simply the best band in this genre.

6,9  out of 10 goatheads 

Click on title for Download link

No comments:

Post a Comment