HAERESIS is a Black Metal band based out of Germany. Formed in 2016, they have released a Demo, and EP, and a Split, but this is their debut full-length album. Titled "Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum," or "if you want peace, prepare for war" in English, it has four long songs. "Echoes of Ashes" is first. It eases in, with eerie, harrowing tones, and then a blood curling scream announces the deep aggression and thick palate of sound. The vocals are absolutely rageful, and the guitars build a concrete wall of sound. Besides frightening tones, you can also hear power and might from the complex riffs. The sound builds in layers throughout, working towards a crescendo, and then releases, to an ethereal passage of piano and clean vocal choirs. What a beautiful ending to the tragedy of sound.

"I Who Repel All Light" comes straight at you with an aggressiveness that can't be parlayed, and the beast bears its deadly fangs and razor-sharp claws. Darkness then descends and covers everything in its towering shadows. Repel all light? Indeed, there isn't even a smidgeon of it around to warm you. It's as cold as hardened steel. "Drifting Beyond Times' Grasp" is a slower burn but does not lose an ounce of intensity. I'm not sure which is stronger…the raging anger or the deep despondence, but both live here. Rounding the six-minute mark, the sound darkens, and a storm threatens on the horizon. Flashes of lightning and thunderclaps tell you it's inevitable, but it dies with solemn tones at the end.

"Eradicate Taciturnity" is the final song, opening with smooth but sober atmospheric sounds. It takes some time in the morning fog, and it's almost peaceful, but when the fog lifts, the aggressive sound returns full force with raging vocals. It rages for what seems like days, even weeks, and then the storm passes, but it pulls part of your soul with it…the part that makes you human. This album provided an ever-changing landscape that was at times, as cold and hard as the deep north, and as excruciatingly hot as Hell itself. If by chance you didn't succumb to the rage, the hopelessness would finish the job. It was masterfully aggressive, and equally as somber.