The Germans Heretoir have been in business for a little over a decade but, after a series of releases from the reduced minutes and a self-titled full length in 2011, they break a long silence and return to the fore with this ambitious The Circle, an album that brings to levels frankly unthinkable the combo founded by David “Eklatanz”. Post metal is insidious matter when it is not treated properly, and the line between arousing enthusiasm and cause tedium is very thin: the difference can only be made by the conviction and talent that the musicians put in composition and instrumental level, letting the emotion take over any form of mannerism. All this succeeds perfectly to the Bavarian band, because in The Circle there is not a single superfluous moment and even the most rarefied passages take on a special meaning in an allegory of existence that winds between metallic overhangs and moments of liquid tranquility. Surely the album, already remarkable in its first half, with excellent tracks like The White and Inhale, starting from the doom incipit of Exhale literally changes gear at an emotional level, with depressive black nuances that alternate with dark ambient grafts, and then start again with persuasive melodies that break on magnificent guitar crescendos: then, as if that were not enough, in Laniakea Dances (Soleils Couchants) appears the voice of Neige to give the imprimatur to a work that, I do not want the brilliant French musician, equals and sometimes exceeds for evocativeness the last work of his Alcest. That Heretoir owes a lot to the transalpine post metal strand, at least at the level of initial inspiration, there is no doubt, since beyond the sounds exhibited, not only the name of the illustrious guest but also the fact of entrusting the artwork to Fursy Teyssier is a strong signal of contiguity to that scene. However, beyond all the speeches that can be made about it, The Circle is a complete work and, although inevitably can bring back at some juncture to the various leading names in the industry, the compositional vis of ours is of a level so much higher than average to make a similar detail completely marginal. If someone harbors doubts try to start from the end, drinking a twenty minutes of shining beauty consisting of the combination of Fading With The Grey and The Circle (Omega): done this and understood what is the caliber of Heretoir, you just have to start this journey that, after all, precisely because of its circular nature, has no end or beginning but the landing points in which to dwell and then resume this journey melancholy, sometimes dramatic, certainly involving in every part. The Circle is the explosion of a reality able to tarnish many of the recognized champions of the genre: a work of such beauty can not be overlooked for any reason.

2017 – Northern Silence Productions