Hemelbestormer - Collide & Merge (2021)

Hemelbestormer is one of the bands that define the heavy music scene in Belgium, one that never disappoints fans' expectations when it comes to the overwhelming guitar noise compositions. Three years after their third album A Ring of Blue Light, they are back with immersive and absolutely massive Collide & Merge.

This extremely long album (physically existing as double CD/LP) is filled with long and slowly developing (or even developing and diminishing and then developing again within one track) very much guitar-oriented compositions. They seem to last forever while the storm of guitar noise comes and goes, making this feel nature-like epic. There are traces of electronica here, but the focus is solely put on what can be achieved with a wall of guitar noise - and the results are so impressive! The blizzard of sound they can generate is fantastic with the noise parts in Collapsar (or rather somewhere within Collapsar's complicated soundscape), the first seconds of In Praise of Sun and in my favourite Void that constitutes almost a quarter-of-an-hour-long love letter to loud music.

But there's more to this music than only the crushing quality of noise. There's a lot of space for moody atmosphere building, drone ambient-like passages as well as for skillful guitar riffs. I love those mysterious spoken word/whispering bits in Quasar as well. In general, the whole album sounds like it was carefully designed to reflect what's the best in instrumental guitar music.

Collide & Merge costs 6 EUR.

Hemelbestormer - A Ring of Blue Light (2018)

Check: Void 

Country: Belgium

Genre: massive post-metal

Label: Ván Records

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Hemelbestormer - A Ring of Blue Light (2018) EN

Wall of overpowering, almost brutal sound of guitars raw like winter in mountains, this is what the Belgian Hemelbestormer is the best in. In Dutch, their name signifies those, who "storm heavens" with their revolutionary ideas, their new album's cover art shows the heavens being stormed by a high mountaintop and their music is filled with storming, high-quality post-metal.

The album consists of a handful of long, epic compositions masticating with guitar noise but also letting the audience fall in love with this feeling and catch a breath in those sparse moments of peace. The latter is present for example in "Clusters", and the strength is needed to survive another incoming doses of the instrumental blizzard. There so much of this noise, no wonder that it is space that is the leitmotif of the album, space meaning something the scale of which overpowers even the strongest of us.

The musicians prove that noise can be served in various ways, like a raw dose of guitars ("Eight Billion Stars") or guitars supported by strong, almost danceable rhythm ("Towards the Nebula") or preceded by a tension-building intro ("Redshift"). They compare being on their concerts to being sucked in by a black hole. This year, some lucky bastards could taste the feeling during Dunk! Festival among others.

"A Ring of Blue Light" costs 6 EUR.

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Hemelbestormer - A Ring of Blue Light (2018) PL

Ściana przygniatającego, niemal brutalnego dźwięku surowych jak zima w górach gitarowego dźwięku, w tym specjalizuje się belgijskie Hemelbestormer. W języku niderlandzkim ich nazwa oznacza tych, którzy rewolucyjnymi pomysłami "szturmują niebo", na okładce ich nowego albumu niebo szturmowane jest przez wysoki szczyt a w muzyce przez wysoką jakość post-metalu.

Płytę tworzy garść długich, epickich kompozycji miażdżących gitarowym hałasem ale też pozwalających rozkoszować się tym uczuciem i nabierać oddechu w nielicznych chwilach spokoju. Taką jest na przykład "Clusters", a siły potrzebne są by przetrwać kolejne dawki instrumentalnej zawieruchy. Tej jest dużo, nic dziwnego, że motywem przewodnim płyty jest kosmos, coś, czego skala potrafi przygnieść najmocniejszych z nas.

Muzycy zespołu udowadniają, że hałas potrafią serwować na rozmaite sposoby, jako surowa dawka gitar ("Eight Billion Stars") ale też wspomożona solidnym, niemal tanecznym rytmem ("Towards the Nebula") czy w końcu poprzedzone budującym napięcie intrem ("Redshift"). Sami porównują uczestnictwo w swoich koncertach do bycia wessanym przez czarną dziurę. W tym roku szczęśliwcy mogli się tak poczuć między innymi na Dunk! Festivalu.

"A Ring of Blue Light" kosztuje 26 złotych (6 EUR).

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