Heretic

Heretic – Feast
Soman Records/Tree House Records
Release Date: 31/08/2021
Running Time: 56:44
Review by Victor Augusto
8.5 /10

Hello my friends! I hope you are all good and safe for this new year. Even though I wish to forget everything that happened in 2021 in my personal life, and pray for a better 2022 (at least a less bad one), I still have things to talk about from last year, and Heretic is one of them. I won’t repeat everything I mentioned about the band, because you can check it on my introduction of the “Entity” EP review, that I did here at Ever Metal previously. The only thing I will emphasize is the fact that I am hearing the 5^th Heretic release in a space of 3 years. Keep this info in mind to understand what I want to tell you.

Basically, I can describe Heretic as a Heavy Metal band that has Oriental and Middle Eastern sounds very present in their music. It’s the band’s trademark, by the way. And how strong these elements are could change in each release. On the last EP, I felt a good balance between the guitar work and the Oriental music. I guess they kept it for this album. I believe the addition of keyboards is the new element, and I can hear that the band is giving a kind of space on the instrumentals for Erich Martins to work in a good atmosphere based on his vocals. You can hear it on the entire album, especially on the beautiful bonus track ‘Anno Mundi’ (Black Sabbath cover).

Guilherme Aguiar and Laysson Mesquita have worked together to create a ground or path, on guitar and bass, to add all the other elements over. Guilherme uses his inspirations from all the Death Metal bands he plays (or played) for to program the drums, adding a few very aggressive short blast beats, as you hear in the opening track ‘Sudden Awakening’, which has these fast beats after a smooth Sitar (I guess it is a Sitar) intro, and few guitar riffs among a cadenced rhythm. The good thing from it is how he’s kept the main essence of the band’s sonority despite this small addition.

By the way, talking about smooth cadences, this is something I noticed for this whole album. Maybe not only to fit the vocals, as I’ve already mentioned, but for an atmosphere for the instruments as well. ‘The Storm’, despite the title track suggesting chaotic music, shows this good and calm vibe. Again, there is a constant keyboard to increase this sense of peace that the sound is offering, even with the heavy riffs and a strong solo from Nym Rhosilir.

The album also offers aggressive tracks like ‘Hiding Moon’, or brings more visibility to good and simple riffs in tracks like ‘Staring at Blazes’ and on the intro of ‘Powerless’. These last two mentioned songs even reminded me a bit of Gojira, in terms of guitar work. There are a few minor changes to sound throughout the album, such as the funky bass intro of ‘Sacred Sea’. ‘Whistleblower’ and the closing song ‘Reza’ look like they left the album pattern behind, though, offering something more brutal than the rest of the album.

Now changing the subject from music to a small detail. I can say the year is new, but my insane thoughts about analyzing references are still old, and it’s getting worse every day! If you read my review of their last EP, I emphasized how they have an amazing sequence of material released in a short space of time. Basically, they had 5 albums in 3 years (two full albums, one cover album, one EP and a live album). It is like they are always hungry to compose and record material. Despite the number of releases, this is the first full album with new composition since 2019 and we have a lot of music here. The EP “Entity” was like an appetizer for this feast. Sorry if I’m talking just gibberish stuff, but it is how I see their ability to compose so much music.

By the way, what matters is the capability to create good and complex music like Heretic have been showing along the years – complex because it is hard to put together so many different musical genres in this way. I just have to congratulate this Brazilian/Portuguese band on the brilliance they keep offering to their fans! Amazing work.

‘The Storm’ – Official Video

TRACKLISTING:
01. Sudden Awakening
02. The Storm
03. Hiding Moon
04. Staring At Blazes
05. Tenderness
06. Sacred Sea
07. Whistleblower
08. Powerless
09. Reza
10. Anno Mundi (Bonus Track – Black Sabbath Cover)

LINE-UP:
Erich Martins – Vocals
Guilherme Aguiar – Guitars, Synths, Orchestration, Drum Programing, Sitar, Tabla, Baglama, Bouzouki, Esraj, Zourna, Shennai and Tampura
Laysson Mesquita – Fretless bass

Guests:
Pete Mush – Keyboards on ‘Sudden Awakening’
Nym Rhosilir – Solo guitar on ‘The Storm’
Thiago Tsuruda – Solo guitar on ‘Tenderness’
Luis Maldonalle – Solo guitar on ‘Sacred Sea’, ‘Powerless’ and ‘Whistleblower’

LINKS:

Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Victor Augusto and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.

Heretic – Entity EP
Self-Released
Release Date: 05/10/2020
Running Time: 31:51
Review by Victor Augusto
8.5/10

One thing that will probably never happen is me releasing a book. Firstly, because I don’t have many interesting things to talk about, except Heavy Metal and I already talk a lot about that here on Ever Metal. Maybe, though, I could write a text that includes everything I think is important to survive in the music industry and how bands can create a good fanbase. I often highlight the bad habits of some bands, but today I must mention one important positive detail that I see occasionally, the regularity of material releases and guess what? Brazilian band Heretic is one amazing example of this!

The year was 2019 and I reviewed the album “Are You…Comfortable?”. To my surprise, they then released “(Dis) Covering” (which included covers of great bands from the 80’s) and then “Code Alive” (Their first live album that marked the first few concerts with this current line-up). Not satisfied, they have now appeared with this EP, “Entity”. Is that enough? No! They already have a new full album also ready to be released this year. Isn’t this great in terms of inspiration for compositions? Moreover, it doesn’t stop there (I sound like a telemarketing seller that always has one more good thing to offer when selling a product, hahaha). Heretic is not your typical Heavy Metal band. They have a strong Oriental and Middle Eastern sound present in their music, something that is not easy to do, if you are not from a country that is used to this sound. However, Heretic has been working hard for years to do it.

The trajectory of this incredible Brazilian band is pretty long as well. They started as just an instrumental band, created by the master of riffs, of multi-instrumentalist, Guilherme Aguiar who feeds himself on guitar riffs and Pamonha*. His inspirations, alongside his versatility, are great keys to Heretic’s sonority. He appears to have balanced his influences from all of the Death Metal and Thrash Metal bands that he is, or was, a part of or knew and has mixed these with new elements. The, not so new, singer Erich Martins provides an amazing interpretation with his vocals as well. The high level of this team is completed by Laysson Mesquita who uses a fretless bass to increase the complexity of the music.

I will mention the aggressiveness on ‘Lurking Around’ and ‘Cultural Starvation’, allied to a good cadence. In addition, the beautiful vocal lines on ‘Golden Rule’ allied to the calm guitar that becomes gradually heavier with more desperate high notes from Erich and the heavy bass on all tracks. It is hard to explain what the most interesting thing is here, because “Entity” is such a consistent EP. For me, what makes it so good is how they have found an amazing balance between the Heavy Metal and the Oriental. Sometimes the ‘Oriental’ is the main character within a song, sometimes it just complements the good, traditional, heavy metal structure. Nevertheless, they fit each other perfectly.

Even the closing song, a cover of ‘The Real Thing’ by Faith No More, has been done in such a way, that it fits with Heretic’s original material. All the tracks are examples of how mature this band has become after releasing 8 albums, 3 EP’s and a live album in just 11 years of existence (with another new album being released in July). Here we have great musicians, who look for professional promotion and have an amazing number of releases that offer a pretty unique kind of music. I can use all of those things to define Heretic and what they have achieved with “Entity”. What an amazing job.

*Pamonha is a typical Brazilian food made by corn and cooked with the corn skin as wrapping.

‘Lurking Around’ (Audio)

TRACKLISTING:
01. Deceiver Ghost
02. Lurking Around
03. Golden Rule
04. Cultural Starvation
05. Rebellions
06. The Real Thing (Faith No More Cover)

LINE-UP:
Erich Martins – Vocals
Guilherme Aguiar – Guitars/Oriental Composition
Laysson Mesquita – Fretless Bass
Moyz Henrique (Special Guest) – All Guitar Solos

LINKS: