Unverkalt Unveil New Album ‘Héréditaire’

Unverkalt have always been drawn to the edge. Since emerging from Greece’s underground catacombs in 2017, the five-piece post-metal band have balanced boundless atmosphere with suffocating heaviness. But now, on their upcoming third album and first for Season of Mist, they are plunging into the darkness that’s always waited for them below. While wrestling with the weight of our accursed history, Héréditaire now stands as their heaviest and most heartfelt offering.

“The contrasting elements at play in Héréditaire, from the gloomy to the raging and the eerie to the explosive, make it a compelling listen that rewards over time”, Dead Rhetoric writes in an 8/10 review. “Unverkalt grapple with the emotions and atmosphere with masterful tone and intention, eliciting a response that leave you reflecting on what you just heard and make you want to return to it once again”.

“This is an album that refused resolution because resolution would be dishonest”, Metal Kaoz writes in a 10/10 review. “Is there a light at the end of this tunnel? There’s no promise of one, only the insistence that you keep walking”.

Héréditaire comes out tomorrow, Friday, February 27 on Season of Mist, but you can hear all nine foundation-shaking songs today by listening to the full album playlist on the Season of Mist YouTube channel.

Listen

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLArAJlC1y558GLkyd9eCnMIkFoE1H2Jku

“Our aim has always been to blend softer, more romantic elements with extreme chaos. With Héréditaire that time has now come”, Unverkalt’s guitarist and chief composer Themis Ioannou says. “This album is a lament for what is far older than our very existence. It speaks of what seeps through generations, searching for an answer to one pervasive question: What do we carry that was never ours?”

Pre-order

https://orcd.co/unverkalthereditaire

Pre-save on Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/prerelease/5ndUNl3HyjsagbOuQCrakn?si=QESfESdPQwqHTC5MKNX4Jw

Available Formats

CD Digipack

2×12” Vinyl Gatefold (Black)

2×12” Vinyl Gatefold (Black & Gold “Sunburst”)

Unverkalt are still possessed by a cinematic vision for post-metal. As if coming into focus, lead single “Die Auslöschung” appears from behind a slow-moving haze before it’s snapped out of its trance by fiery blast beats. But whereas the band’s previous albums took cues from French painting and European film noir, Héréditaire throws back the velvet curtain in favor of a veil. “Oath Ov Prometheus” dismantles the myth of man as god’s perfection creation with Dimitra Kalavrezou’s freshly blackened vocals.

“We love to experiment with every album”, Ioanno says. “My two favorite genres are black and post-metal. With Héréditaire, we wanted to blend the two together. Introducing extreme vocals brings out all these heavy feelings. It’s like they’re shaking you awake”.

Héréditaire is a pulse-pounding new direction for Unverkalt, but the album’s arc traces back to our deepest and darkest origins. “The concept behind our new album ties in with the band’s heavier direction”, Kalavrezou says. “Each song peels back another blackened layer of memory, trauma and suffering, which linger over us like ghosts: invisible, yet endlessly present”. Beneath a surging bass line, “Introjects” rips away beliefs that were never ours but inherited like a disease between generations.

Kalavrezou’s mystifying cleans remain one of Unverkalt’s defining traits. But her contempt for those who watch the world burn is all the more heated when forged alongside her Athenian brother-in-arms and Season of Mist labelmate Sakis Tolis from Rotting Christ on the monolithic “I, The Deceit”. As the album draws to a close, Héréditaire ends shadowed in doubt for the future. “Bathed in lies / Can we make it better” she wonders before disappearing into the shivering wake left by “Maladie de ‘Esprit”.

“This album is not meant to resolve”, the band says, “but to dissolve patterns from those who came before, faceless yet familiar. The colors have drained. What remains is veiled in black, not as a symbol, but as a truth that covers everything”.

On Héréditaire, Unverkalt lift the veil on our cursed existence with their heaviest and most heartfelt offering.

“I enjoy discovering new, unique and compelling music in today’s overwhelming world of information, and I believe I truly succeeded with Unverkalt”, Sakis Tolis says. “This is an exceptional piece of art, worth every minute of listening”.

Die Auslöschung (6:06) Oath Ov Prometheus (5:40) Ænæ Lithi (5:34) A Lullaby for the Descent (5:11) Penumbrian Lament (6:02) Introjects (5:25) I, The Deceit (feat. Sakis Tolis) (5:47) Death is Forever (4:50) Maladie de l'Esprit (5:34)