ninehertz

I first came across This Gift if a Curse on the superb split they shared with Hexis, a decade ago now. They have made their name as one of the leaders of the European blackened hardcore sound, across three albums before this, but I suspect Heir will be their signature release, such is its ambition and stunning quality.

The opening Kingdom sets the scene - harsh blackened hardcore, really upping the black metal dose in that hybrid equation beyond the genre norms, making for such visceral outbursts. There are so many highlights from there on out, the pure obliteration speed blackness of Death Maker, the phenomenal Vow Sayer's assault on your ears.

There are long songs on here, betraying its doom-elements, but the omnipresent feeling is of a whole cavalcade of genre influences expertly knitted together. Take No Sun, Nor Moon, pushing more toward black metal than any other of the component parts, other than the vocals; it's in that same all round rotten, pitch black sphere of Plebeian Grandstand, the unexpected cosmic synthy ending however marks them out as their own masters, with their own unique remit. Then jump to Void Bringer which follows, slowing it down into Amenra-ish post-metal territories.

There's frenetic hardcore on Seers of No Light and then Cosmic Voice's seven minutes of pure atmospherics, almost industrial; as the title suggests it is not of this world, a sense of the vast emptiness and darkness of the universe. It's hard to keep up, but to be honest there's no need, you're too preoccupied with the wild brutality of it, of simply how good it all is, to be splitting hairs over what this section is born from - or why this section has sped up, slowed down, become harsher, more cosmic, more primal.

Heir is a sprawling, hour long opus, the outcome of a band intent on making a statement album, wielding a whole arsenal of weapons from across metal's extreme frontiers, but not aimlessly - this is tight, focussed and merciless attack on the senses, an absolutely ferocious experience.