I really don’t know what is happening in Australia at the moment. At one time I would have dismissed almost any Aussie band as making sunny and upbeat tunes to ride the waves to or to bang out at the Ramsay Street barbie. While I can’t claim to have been *ahem* swept away by any of the recent metal bands I’ve discovered from Down Under, it has opened my eyes to the fact that some of them at least have metal pumping through their veins or have something more interesting to say than “Do the Locomotion.”
The latest bunch to emerge from this part of the world whose brains haven’t been tainted by the hot sun are Heirs; so called as they claim to want “to be heirs of a musical history and to expand on this, becoming part of musical history themselves.” It must be said that this album didn’t instantly grab me; perhaps due to its purely instrumental sound, this wasn’t one that I was sure of right from the start although after repeated listens I found myself really able to immerse myself in this album. With no vocals to focus on it’s down to the music to do all of the talking here and it certainly manages to speak to me. What soon becomes very clear is the way this communicates in contrasts; I’m taken on a spiritual journey through darkness and light; beauty and pain; at times it’s a bit of a guessing game which side of the coin we’ll get next.
‘Plague Asphyx’ gets things off to a real clatter. There’s an experimental Swans vibe to this opener and with plenty of distortion and guitars scraping in and out this all feels rather unhinged; certainly this will make you sit up, before ‘Mockery’ follows and lulls you back into a relaxed state. There are shades of Anathema in the doom tinged melancholy here and on ‘Cabal’ in particular. Both tracks attempts to draw you into a hypnotic trance with its slow, ritualistic drumming and mellow guitar sounds that sonorously sweep around in the mix, caressing your eardrums. The latter has the kind of hopeful glint as the sun comes out and dries up the rain allowing new flowers to blossom through; again showing that juxtaposition of lachrymose gloom and hopeful optimism.
The mellow ambience of ‘Mandril’ gradually descends into an intense industrial march which has a particularly militant Godflesh heavy drumbeat. This adds more depth and variety to the album taking on a much more fierce approach to the shoegazy numbers that precede it. There’s something chilling about the introduction to ‘Russia;’ a kind of sinister fairground-esque keyboard melody that is cut short by an aural raincloud that seems to herald the apocalypse. Droning guitars and background fuzz merge into what sounds like a bleak nothingness; the remnants of a world that once was, but is no more. A pastiche of broken up news broadcasts and the whirr of helicopters overhead suddenly fade into a black hole as the track disintegrates. Sunno))) is a sure point of reference here and frankly it’s a bit of a headfuck.
It goes without saying that Heirs isn’t going to be for everyone, and certainly not if you’re after some light background music to invite your neighbours round for a bbq. If you enjoy music that is both delicate and desolate in equal measures and that makes you think a little bit, then this is most definitely one for you. What’s more, they are currently booking a full UK tour for October, when I shall no doubt head out to wherever they are playing an watch them in action.
http://www.heirs.com/au
http://www.exorecords.net
http://www.denovali.com
