Heidra gets ready for the battle with its third album.
Since 2006, the band composed of Martin W. Jensen (guitar/vocals), Morten Bryld (vocals/guitar), Carlos G.R. (guitar), James Atkin (bass, ex-Svarstot) offers us To Hell or Kingdom Come in 2022 at Mighty Music, with the help of Francesco Paoli (drums, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Coffin Birth, ex-Hour of Penance).
The album starts with The Beginning And The End, an epic intro which sets the basis of this hooking style, unveiled on Retribution’s Dawn. Weighing orchestrations are melted to the effective riffs, which welcome saturated and clean vocals, creating a catchy aggressiveness which will frequently be broken by quieter seizing sonorities, then Dusk comes to offer a solid rhythmic completed by heady leads. Quite accessible, the composition aligns the hooking elements influenced by Power Metal roots, while The Rebirth turns out to be darker and more weighing. The contrast with more motivating or softer parts is interesting, revealing the band’s whole musical range, then Wolfborn Rising offers us a wild ride through the nordic forests. Warlike parts are melted with energetic riffs which continue on Fall Of The Fey, a very federating composition. Once again, the sound develops a quite burdening ambience, partly fed by screams, but also extremely hooking elements, like those clean vocal parts and backing vocals, then To Hell Or Kingdom Come, the eponymous track, offers us a moment to breathe. The soft introduction will be followed by a catchy rhythmic, but also by melodic harmonics and a warlike ambience, which is developed on the whole song, before Ancient Gates come to offer mystical tones. The haunting quietness is accompanied by those mysterious vocals, then saturation surfaces again during the intense explosion, followed by a dark calmness before Cloaks And Daggers makes the riffs’ incisive energy spawn again. The song is effective but not too aggressive, and it is followed by Two Kings, a similar composition which allows the band to close its album with raw efficiency, melodic but solid riffs and above all this melting between violence and epic tones.
Heidra handles sharp riff like a sword, and To Hell or Kingdom Come proves it many times. Epic compositions follow each other, unveiling violence, coldness and catchy elements to make us participate in their fierce battle.
80/100