Helde is a band from the Basque Country, active since 2005. They are a three piece that play grim black metal for the second wave enthusiasts. They launched their first album entitled Suaren Gerizpea, meaning something like “shades of fire” (according with the ineffective help of Google). All lyrics are in Basque, so we can guess that the album’s themes could range from occult to misanthropic subjects, given the content of the song titles. The album cover, a b/w picture of a fire deflagrating in a forest, points in the direction of beautiful things turned into ashes, with the black smoke stronger than the night landscape.
Each and every theme is pretty grim, blastbeats sometimes pulsate like crazy right into your head, there’s not much space for atmosphere, but some melodies and riffs are reminiscent of Immortal and even Darkthrone’s sound back in the day. Even though Helde’s sound is very drawn to the 90s black metal raw sound from Norwegian lands, maybe their personality could come up disclosing itself into a brutal and monolithic sound that gave body to the guitar and vocal grimness that, otherwise, sound flat and almost the same.
There were parts in the album that bored me, because the blastbeats and riff structure weren’t performing any diversity worthy of my attention. After several listens the outcome is positive and I would like to see Helde in the future like I see Murg from Sweden: keeping the old flame alive without sounding obsolete.
Notes:
Suaren Gerizpea was released on June 16 2015 in CD by Negra Nit Distro and cassette by Wulfrune Worxxx.
Tracklist:
1. Suaren inguruan
2. Belearen hegaldia
3. Herio eta oinaze
4. Garaitezinen requiema
5. Sasikume
6. Sugar
7. Sakrifizioa
Personnel:
Jorge Azofra - Drums
Txusan - Everything else
A.A - Everything else
Text by Vetrarnótt
Each and every theme is pretty grim, blastbeats sometimes pulsate like crazy right into your head, there’s not much space for atmosphere, but some melodies and riffs are reminiscent of Immortal and even Darkthrone’s sound back in the day. Even though Helde’s sound is very drawn to the 90s black metal raw sound from Norwegian lands, maybe their personality could come up disclosing itself into a brutal and monolithic sound that gave body to the guitar and vocal grimness that, otherwise, sound flat and almost the same.
There were parts in the album that bored me, because the blastbeats and riff structure weren’t performing any diversity worthy of my attention. After several listens the outcome is positive and I would like to see Helde in the future like I see Murg from Sweden: keeping the old flame alive without sounding obsolete.
Notes:
Suaren Gerizpea was released on June 16 2015 in CD by Negra Nit Distro and cassette by Wulfrune Worxxx.
Tracklist:
1. Suaren inguruan
2. Belearen hegaldia
3. Herio eta oinaze
4. Garaitezinen requiema
5. Sasikume
6. Sugar
7. Sakrifizioa
Personnel:
Jorge Azofra - Drums
Txusan - Everything else
A.A - Everything else
Text by Vetrarnótt
