Artist: Hiemal Atavism
Country: France
Label: Hérésie Nocturne
Formats: Demo Tape
Year: 2025
After the last Reich Der Geister demo I have been keeping an eye on this project and all of its other affiliated activities. I am not entirely sure, but my guess is that the majority, if not all, the bands/projects on the Hérésie Nocturne label have sprung from the mind of the same individual who is also running that label. Some of these released tapes contain purely Ambient/Dungeon Synth music, while other (also) offer a rawer kind of Black Metal, but they somehow have a certain sonic connotation that ties all of this together.
Hiemal Atavism is a new project of which it is sure that is led by the same person also doing Reich Der Geister and Par-Delà Le Miroir, and this too is a primarily a Raw Black Metal affair. But while Reich Der Geister sounded very familiar to me and was easy to digest, Hiemal Atavism is something else entirely. Even when it is cut from the same kind of cloth, Hiemal Atavism leans far more heavily on repetitive, slightly distorted and unsettlingly dissonant riffing. That gives the whole demo, which clocks just under the 15-minute mark, a very eerie touch. The raw emotion ingrained in the many layers of this demo does not make it easy to get to the heart of it, and the fact that it is just one long track also demands something of the listener. Nevertheless, it is an interesting journey that reveals more and more of its secrets with each listen. The double layer of vocals, whispering and almost wailing, gives the whole thing a cold, haunting and pervasive character that certainly lives up to the name of this demo.
Like a number of the other titles on Hérésie Nocturne, this tape is also only available in a limited edition of 20 copies. Those who wish to be tantalised and prefer not to have their Black Metal served up in bite-sized chunks can order their copy via the label’s Bandcamp.
