Heretoir - Solastalgia (2025)^{Release ID: 62773}

Heretoir are a German atmospheric black metal band that have been around for a surprisingly long time. I had never heard of them prior to being introduced to them late in 2025 and their new record, Solastalgia. And the only reason I gave it my attention at this point in the year is because I was told it was right up my alley in the style of black metal that I typically enjoy. Well, that friend was right because Solastalgia is like a modern day love letter to Agalloch's Ashes Against the Grain.

Now I do need to choose my words very carefully from here on out, because Ashes Against the Grain might be one of my favourite albums of all time. And Solastalgia does more than enough to separate itself from Agalloch. In fact, the main reason why I enjoy Solastalgia so much is because of how much it shares in common with a band like Svalbard. This is huge sounding atmospheric black metal, but with a hip, metalcore front. The promotional single "You Are the Night" and "Burial" are far less in common with Agalloch, but no doubt matching in instrumental beauty. The acoustic passages on "Seasons of Grief", the piano bridge on "Inertia" and the earthly tonal center of "The Heart of December" are undoubtedly Agalloch in presentation.

Perhaps it is ironic then that Heretoir named their album Solastalgia. A word whose etymology is a portmanteau of the words "solace" and "nostalgia". Nostalgia is a word typically associated with positive thoughts and emotions, whereas Solastalgia is the antithesis; where the places and people that you once knew and grew up with have all changed and have become affected by the passage of time. As such, it is less surprising that Heretoir are developing the sound of Agalloch to places that band could have never gone. And with this bands roots in depressive suicidal black metal, the grief and distress felt within the music and lyrics hits with its meta commentary that I never expecting out of a black metal album! Although, if I'm being nitpicky, a few of the lyrical choices to feel quite cliche and could have been written by nearly anyone.

Despite all my praise for the instrumentals so far, I do have to mention the obtuseness in the percussion. I think that it sounds fine and it's performed with an extreme level of precision, I just feel like the drums are mixed way too close to the front. At the beginning of "Dreamgatherer" it begins with a pleasant clean guitar with reverb and before you know it, the percussion is playing on top of you and the guitar melody has nowhere to go. It also becomes rather intrusive during blast beats like the bridge of "Solastalgia" among others.

All told though, I really enjoyed Solastalgia. The band really captured the essence of the word here; an album that has aspirations of Agalloch, brought into the modern age with metalcore and blackgaze textures. It will be a struggle for those who just want to enjoy Agalloch, but if you're willing to come to terms with Agalloch not coming back (and Ashes Against the Grain being nearly two decades old), then I can assure you that this album is a clinic in modern day post-black metal.

Best Songs: The Ashen Falls, You Are the Night, Dreamgatherer, Solastalgia, Inertia