Haeredium - Ascension

Haeredium is a modern folk metal band from Eastern France, formed in 2009 with the vision to make folk metal more modern with the focus on energy and to fuse metal with other styles like jazz. With themes about nature, philosophy and storytelling and a lot of happy tunes the band is very nice to listen to and every song doesn’t sound similar. In 2013 they released "Aurora" and went after one album on tour with international bands like Eluveitie and Tankard. In 2019 Séb, Alexia, Rémi, Quentin and Nico wend back to the studio to record "Ascension" this album was released in 2019 through Art Gates Record.

When I first listened to the songs I could not believe my ears and was really surprised by the number of instruments, they're not only using the basic instruments (drums, bass, guitars and vocals) but also mandoline, keys, violins, flute’s and many other instruments. At first the instrumental opening track 'Wandering' a song that immediately gets your attention because of the tune and the atmosphere. The song 'Breathe' is the second song on this album, this song just makes you want to drink beer and party. There is a lot of energy in this song and the musical parts just flow into each other, the instruments in this song are well balanced and really fit this song.

One other song that got my attention is 'Joyride', with a lot of polka influence and the drum is playing a jazzy rhythm, the vocals on this song are nice and pleasant to hear but not really unique. Later in this song wind instruments are added and are combined with a guitar to form a solo that goes on till the vocals, violins and other guitars kick in. There is a lot of experimenting in style and genre with the song 'Joyride', the instruments and rhythm don’t fit in the style metal. I really am not sure to know what kind of style it can be classified in (maybe the style Haeredium). But maybe I shouldn’t think in boxes and squares and just listen to what the music tries to tell me.

Overall the album is well produced and there is no lack of creativity considering the artists. One drawback is that because of the constant stream of instruments and different music parts you really can get tired of listening to the songs. An other thing is that the vocals are very similar to other bands, they are very joyful, energetic but not unique. Although this album is a huge risk it has no lack of diversity in instruments, riffs and other musical elements and the high level of energy.

[embed]

1. Wandering
2. Breathe
3. Images I Recall
4. Merchant Of Lies
5. Fall
6. Euforio
7. From Silence
8. Winds Will Turn
9. Alpha Ursae Minoris
10. Joyride
11. Soif d'Affronts Et De Victoires
12. Storyteller