This album has one of the most evil spookiest looking cover this writer has ever seen. It screams at you that what you are about to receive is terrifying doom core, scary, bleak and wrong. So it comes as some surprise to get instrumental post rock in the vein of Mono, perhaps a tad darker, with building crescendos that touches upon the darkness, though not the weirdness of Khante, without ever really finding a home there. It’s highly repetitive these melodies repeat over and over and the noisy barnacles attach themselves, increasing in volume and texture until a searing guitar line sweeps across the horizon. It comes from Melbourne, from members of sludge doom dudes Whitehorse, and Love Like…Electrocution and they parade their Swans and Godflesh influences proudly, however the quartet don’t share the same dangerous brutality, seeming more intent on wallowing inside the dark melodies before slowly building things up, at times touching upon an industrial roar. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Heirs isn’t their bluster or aggression, it’s their willingness to be at times soft and gentle, to build slowly, to give themselves both time and space to get to their destination, yet also take different routes to get there.
Bob Baker Fish
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