Heriot – Demure (Church Road Records)

It’s fair to say that Heriot were one of the major success stories in 2022 from the UK’s thriving Metal scene. After building interest in their unique sounds with a succession of fine single releases in 2020-2021, the four piece Sludge-Doom-Death-Post-Hardcore band (who are pretty difficult to pigeonhole!) began the year touring the UK with Rolo Tomassi and Pupil Slicer, before releasing their debut record Profound Morality to great acclaim on their new label Church Road Records. Heriot then played a succession of prestigious summer festivals including Download and Bloodstock, before finishing the year in style supporting Zeal & Ardor.

https://kult-zilla.com/2022/11/08/zeal-ardor-heriot-live-concorde-2-brighton-07-11-2022/

And the Swindon based four-piece have also hit the ground running in 2023, touring with Rolo Tomassi once again, this time in Europe as well as in the UK and with Canadian Post-Metal/Black-Gaze band Holy Fawn also along for the ride. And Heriot have just announced their forthcoming first UK headline tour, and have dropped their first new music since Profound Morality with the single Demure, featuring a stunning and visually intoxicating video directed by Harry Steel (@hauntedmattress).

Demure opens with the relative calm of a soft synth soundscape, before creaking guitars and shimmering highs build the tension of the intro through to a subterranean sludgy riff of epic proportions. Singer/guitarist Deb Gough lets rip with a venomous reprise over the stabbing guitar of Erhan Alman, before the track mellows as her vocals take on a clean and ethereal style.

Typically the track slams back in with immense distortion, and the gruffer deep Death-Doom growl of singer/bassist Jake Packer enters for a duet of pure aggression, which crescendos into chaos with drummer Julian Gage providing the phrenetic heartbeat. Demure slips into a melodic outro which returns to the Shoegaze style of the intro, with the blend of sounds eloquently sewn together providing two opposing sides of raw emotion.

You can hear in Demure that Heriot are maturing as songwriters, with the experience of playing so many shows together last year shining through in the music and the production making them sound better than ever. And if this is a merely a taster for more new music to come in 2023 … then bring it on! KZ

https://heriotmetal.bandcamp.com

Words by – Abstrakt_Soul