...SIŁA I PIĘKNO MUZYKI TKWIĄ W JEJ RÓŻNORODNOŚCI...


..::OPIS::..

Heruvim został powołany do życia w 2019 roku przez czterech, ukraińskich muzyków, którzy właśnie po wydaniu demosa i dwóch epek w wersji digital, zarejestrowali swój debiutancki album. Panowie grają death metal w klasycznej jego formie, w którym czuć mocne wpływy Benediction i Bolt Thrower. Zatem, za pośrednictwem „Mercator” dostajemy siedem kawałków brytyjskiego metalu śmierci w wydaniu wschodnioeuropejskim. To muzyka, płynąca w średnich i mozolnych tempach. Charakteryzuje się dużą gęstością i co za tym idzie, sporym ciężarem gatunkowym. Każda z kompozycji do zbiór żylastych riffów, w między które wpleciono znaczną ilość wysokotonowych, powykręcanych zagrywek, tremolo i doomowych, rozwleczonych akordów. Całość została opatrzona smołowatym i delikatnie przybrudzonym brzmieniem, nad którym unoszą się posępne i mocno gardłowe growle, ale Ukraińcy dołożyli tutaj jeszcze trochę sampli i swoistych interludiów, podbijając w ten sposób przygniatający klimat tego krążka, bowiem jego atmosferyczność wyraźnie rzuca się na uszy.

Heruvim kreuje przygnębiającą i mroczną muzykę o momentami kontemplacyjnym usposobieniu, w które chwilami wbija się furia spowodowana sprzeciwem. Przez cały czas trwania tej płyty, słychać huśtawkę nastrojów, w których królują smutek i wściekłość w przerażającej, i etosowej otulinie, co w kontekście politycznych wydarzeń na Ukrainie specjalnie nie dziwi, ale też pomaga zrozumieć niechęć tamtego społeczeństwa do wojny. Zresztą tytuł mówi sam za siebie, bo słowo „mercator” w naszym języku oznacza „kupiec” i chodzi tutaj o handlarza ludźmi, którzy wysyłani są na front, dzięki czemu garstka bogaczy napycha swoje kieszenie jeszcze bardziej. Kwartet ten ubrał problemy swojego narodu w ciężki i niepokojący death metal, wypełniony sprawną i przeszywającą grą na gitarach oraz wywołującej drżenie ziemi, sekcji rytmicznej. Dramatyczne wydarzenia, a także ich interpretacja, opisane za pomocą poważnie i bardzo spójnie brzmiącego death metalu.

shub niggurath


This release is dedicated in loving memory of Nick Sila.

Heruvim are not just a band -- they are a family. They are united by their love for death metal and the heavy music they create, despite the chaos they currently face.

While writing Mercator, half of the band were abroad, and the other half remained in Odesa, Ukraine. The recording process wasn't easy. Many studios have shut down, and with the ongoing war, traveling to record was dangerous. Bombings, shrapnel, and forced conscription were constant threats. The government is snatching ordinary people off the streets and sending them to fight in poorly equipped and dangerous conditions, while the rich and powerful remain safe. It's a war of the poor.

Despite all of this, Heruvim managed to make this album. It wasn't safe--missiles could strike at any moment, and they were constantly at risk of being taken by the authorities, but they never gave up.

"We used the money we earned from our music to support our friends at the front, getting them the supplies they desperately need to survive. The title Mercator means "merchant" in Latin, and it speaks to the power structures that exploit people. The rulers of the world treat us like resources, dealers in lives and souls, driven only by profit and control. We reject that. We believe all forms of power are criminal, and no ruler is truly benevolent. Our music reflects this anger and horror--about the existential terror of our reality and the oppressive machinery behind it. We were inspired by David Lynch, especially Inland Empire and Twin Peaks, and this album is about our pain, our losses, our rebirth. We've endured so much, and we're not asking for sympathy. What matters most is that we've stayed human in the middle of hell. We'll keep going, no matter what." - Nefarious



Heruvim locate the carefree bounce of Pestilence circa ‘Spheres’ within the dark chasmic setting of modern death metal, flattening off progressive nuance in favour of creating something more accessible from the raw material. Demilichian chromaticism is recruited as binding material, linking the progressive allusions with the nihilism of modern death metal, upgrading it from its current futility into a place of pragmatism. Through this stitching together of the old and the new comes an oddly positive, active statement that captures the substance and purpose of the genre in its heyday.


Prima facie this album behaves much like any garden variety old school fodder. The production is soft and warm, emphasising the artist’s need to convey authenticity, achieved through an organic mix. The fuzzy guitar tone conveys a sense of clarity through jagged, high end riffs that arise violently from the dirge of swampy, low end droning. Crisp, clear drums sit neatly within this naturalism but cut through with vigour, tightly framing the choppy shifts in tempo and the angular, multi-dimensional riffing just as they drive home the more straightforward mid-paced marches lifted directly from the book of Bolt Thrower. Mid-range, reverb drenched vocals complete the picture, adding a muscular throughline of imposing malevolence that cuts through the otherwise straight faced ambiguity of the music itself.

What makes ‘Mercator’ stand apart from aesthetically equivalent efforts is a sense of balance. Specifically between a playful surrealism born of sharp micro-refrains that compound on one another throughout the course of a track, juxtaposed against the despondence of doom passages, the latter of which are often pitched where a solo would normally fall. Simple, clean harmonic material accents these segments, opening out of the mix with rich ambience, thus making explicit the sense of scale that was previously merely implied.

There is a clear contrast of moods carried throughout this music. Between a subterranean darkness, an active mid-range of uncanny motion, and explosions of anomic chaos as the music splits itself apart only to rebuild to a place of greater solidity. Despite the frequent churn and rearrangement of material throughout, Heruvim never squander their momentum, transferring energy and themes from one passage to the next, thus crafting a supervenient unity atop the apparent disorder. Although the music is constantly buffeted by an atonal physicality, one is left with an overarching impression of illogical tragedy, a mournful, lamentation rendered all the more impactful for its latent weird and eerie riff signatures.

we hope you die



..::TRACK-LIST::..

1. Mysterium Tremendum 06:56
2. Nulla Res 04:30
3. Gnosis 04:08
4. Arammu 04:01
5. VIII 00:46
6. Mercator 05:18
7. Lacrimae Rerum 04:43



..::OBSADA::..

Kick Flis - Guitar
Nefarious - Vocals, Guitars
Hot Rod - Bass
Andrii Sarandi - Drums



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noHms1aB9KI



SEED 15:00-22:00.
POLECAM!!!