UNVERKALT – HÉRÉDITAIRE

This is an album about intergenerational pain, about scripts we didn’t choose, about inherited burdens that shape us long before we’re able to question them. This is an album that gestures towards resolution but never finds a way to heal the wounds.

‍

That unresolvable trauma isn’t confined to the album’s theme. It shapes how the record unfolds, how long passages hold tension, and how rarely it allows that tension to discharge. This is a dynamic album that rewards dedicated repeat listens. The impact comes less from quiet/loud exchanges and more from how many elements are active at any given moment. Sections rarely announce themselves with sharp cinematic transitions, and at times it’s hard to tell when one idea has ended and another has begun because the music just keeps leaning forward. Instead, parts evolve by thickening or thinning the mix, with guitars shifting roles between momentum, mass, and negative space. When intensity increases (and it increases often) it largely comes from added layers rather than a jump in speed or loudness.

‍

Nowhere is this commitment to building intensity through layers more apparent than in the vocal mix. Dimitra Kalavrezou’s ethereal clean leads are regularly complemented by additional vocal textures; whispered call-outs, blackened screams and absolutely unsettling wails. Guitarist Eli Mavrychev’s death growls add depth and texture. Rejecting modern extreme metal tropes where the vocals sit front and centre, all of these elements are carefully mixed by Joshua Barber so that no single voice is consistently dominating. The result is a wall of sound that reinforces the album’s broader approach to tension, building pressure without offering release.

‍

One of Héréditaire’s most unique moments arrives in Ænæ Lithi, where the themes of inheritance are grounded in sound rather than suggestions. Traditional instrumentation opens the song. A flute resembling the floghera and hand percussion provides an exhale midway through, and strummed instruments close the song. This grounding in a specific cultural lineage gives physical form to the idea of inheritance, and by integrating these sounds across the record’s broader soundscape, Unverkalt avoid framing tradition as refuge.

‍

In the end, Héréditaire never resolves the weight it carries. Instead, it asks that the listener sit with what is unresolved - musically, emotionally, generationally. The lyrics of “Introjects” acknowledge that some inheritances cannot be healed: “It's all sorts of dead ideas / They cling to us all the same / And we can't get rid of them”. What the album offers instead is understanding, but only if we’re willing to keep listening.

‍

SCORE 9/10

WORDS BY RYAN LIND

‍