Czech Republic band Heiden first hit my radar last year with their split CD with countrymen Trollech. In fact both bands were good enough to make me sit up and listen and I was intrigued to hear more from them. As far as Heiden are concerned they are obviously pretty prolific as ‘Obsidian’ is their 4th release since 2003. The first thing that catches attention here is the excellent obsidian artwork of the sleeve and back tray case but by complete contrast on opening the booklet the lyrics and accompanying photos are placed over purest white, which really works well. So full marks to whoever came up with the design (and it does sometimes pay to send us the finished products rather than crappy CDR with no artwork).
Musically I am led to believe that the group started out on their first couple of albums playing ‘pagan’ metal. They have morphed since then into what I can only conceivably guess as being a much more mature form, one that the label has described as being a mix of black, doom and rock. This does strike as a continuation of the tracks I heard on the split and I would add other categories to their sound as we delve into this, it certainly isn’t particularly easy to put in a pigeonhole. After an eerie intro the guitar work on ‘Catharsis’ really stands out, it is a progressive sounding fluid assault, excellently structured and really allowing everything to flow around it. I am reminded a bit of the arcane sound of Root and with the guttural vocals in the background a little bit of Loits. There is a sort of flack n roll vibe here that is not a million miles from the Estonian legionnaires or even from more recent Satyricon to be heard here.
The spiky guitar work on ‘Triad’ do put this clearly in the realms of blackened metal though. This plays behind a doom laden misery serenade which suddenly picks up and flows off with a bristling backbone of angry drumming. The fact that I do not understand the lyrics (although they are kindly printed in English) makes this even more intriguing and otherworldly. ‘At A Funeral’ exudes a bleak cold air, perfectly in the essence of the subject; again I am struck by the sinister shivering guitar melody here. It almost plays a funereal and sorrowful flamenco as it uncoils.
This isn’t the longest album in the world, coming in at a perfect 41 minutes long but still managing to completely involve the listener. The thing I really like about Heiden is that on the strength of this and one split it is evident they clearly have a sound identifiable as their own. I reckon if put to the test I could easily pick them out from a crowd and that uniqueness certainly makes them worth checking out.
http://heidenhorde.com
http://www.myspace.com/heidenhorde
