Heretoir – Solastalgia (Review)

Heretoir are a post-black metal band from Germany and this is their fourth album.

Following on from 2023’s Nightsphere comes Solastalgia, which brings us 63 minutes of new music from Heretoir, (which includes an In Flames cover). I confess, I wasn’t expecting this to be as good or as impactful as it is.

Taking ingredients from black metal, post-rock, melodic death metal, and shoegaze, Heretoir’s music manifests as an affecting, feeling-rich work of atmospheric depth and expressive heaviness. Solastalgia balances itself between these two primary aspects, blurring the lines, until its post-black metal/blackgaze personality becomes something greater than the sum of its parts.

Solastalgia is a well-crafted and professional record, that features generally tighter and more compact songwriting. Atmosphere is still a major part of Heretoir’s sound, but there’s now a greater emphasis on immediacy and hooks. There’s importance placed on mood-focused worldbuilding, but Heretoir don’t neglect the aggression when they need to. Solastalgia is undeniably beautiful, but it also has a furious bite when it wants to. Solastalgia is shrouded in melancholic darkness and soaring epic atmosphere, but strengthened by blackened ferocity and thick metallic distortion. The vocals – screams and cleans – are filled with emotion, as is the rest of the music.

As a rough idea of where Solastalgia sits, think of a cross between Agalloch, Alcest, Harakiri for the Sky, Svalbard, and Killswitch Engage. That last one might seem out of place, but if you think of that band contextualised into a post-blackened framework, hopefully it will make sense, particularly in some of the anthemic clean singing and heavier rhythmic riffs.

Heretoir have produced a strong, enjoyable album. I liked Nightsphere, but Solastalgia is the superior record. It blends the strengths of the past with a contemporary heavier edge, making for music that offers a well-rounded blackened atmospheric journey.

Highly recommended.