Hei’An: Monumental post-progressive metal album imago releasing along with new video single noises!
The wait is over: Hei’An are finally releasing their monumental post-progressive album imago, and the trailing piece in the band’s pentalogy of carefully crafted video singles, titled noises. Contradicting said title in an unexpected way, noises starts off slow and in a dignified manner, adding layers piece by piece until it all erupts in a festive crescendo with a positive message hidden deep inside: “Probably our favorite song off the record, it’s our most ‘modern-sounding’ song, with a lot of synths and pads, beautiful orchestrations and catchy melodies, with some progressive elements hidden in there, but really elegantly, so if you are not paying attention, it comes off as rather ‘simple’. It sounds huge, though – the whole song is a big buildup towards a majestic resolution for the end of the song. We are really looking forward to this one, it’s essentially about finding peace within yourself.”
The official animated video for noises creates the perfect atmosphere for this song about a journey to your own heart (and head): “Now I’m sitting in a room / noises are my only friends / I rather focus on what’s true / than on people’s same old chants”. The fast-moving images and strong, dark colors manifest the inner fight for peace in an impressive, deeply moving way, with some animations reminiscent of the Rorschach inkblot test while other scenes show solitary individuals in forsaken settings, absorbed in music and their own thoughts.
A great way of rounding up the cycle of singles and moving fans over to the bigger, transformative journey that is imago.
imago by Hei’an will be released on November 25th via SAOL and available for pre-order here: https://orcd.co/heian_imago
Hei’An and imago: postmodern masterclass
Originally a one-man project by Slovenian musician Matic Blagonič, Hei’An has now evolved into a veritable collective of keen artists striving to bring Slovenian metal into our heads and hearts – successfully so! The band, who likes to think of their output as “Post-Progressive-Metal”, impressively manages to balance out both heavy sounds and tender emotions blossoming across a field of arcane post-metal-esque landscapes. Through the inspiration of names such as Alcest, Leprous or Together To The Stars, especially listeners of dreamy and deep metal songs will highly appreciate the upcoming album imago.
The concept album, which is set to be released on November 25th 2022 depicts a journey through a man’s inner hell and the challenge of overcoming inner demons and trauma. Touching on vile, yet sadly all too common topics such as toxic relationships, depression, loss or addiction, imago directs the listener through multiple circles of torment and tribulations – on the road to reemerging with a positive, reflected pattern.
The title imago – which is the name of the final track as well – comes from the last phase of development of growth for insects. While caterpillars are going through their imago stage, they become butterflies, free creatures with unique colors and a past. Summing up the album’s essence, Blagonič says: “It’s a metaphor for going through a bunch of hardships, yet in the end, spreading your wings as a beautiful butterfly, and moving forward better, stronger, more connected with yourself and more beautiful, especially on the inside. That’s why there is a butterfly on our album cover. But as you will notice, the butterfly still has slightly burnt and damaged wings – that is because when going through hardships, you can never just ‘forget’ or ‘erase’ what you’ve gone through, trauma will always stay with you, forever. But if you accept it, understand it (and yourself) and learn from it, you can still blossom into a beautiful butterfly, full of love and full of life.”
The musical journey of Hei’An may have just begun – but with their highly lyrical, artistic approach toward heavy music, they are set to have a bright future in post-modern metal.
Tracklist
01 semita tenebrarum
02 inferno feat. Oəlka (Malorshiga)
03 embers
04 can’t get out of my skin
05 escape
06 dreamer feat. Joe Buras (Born Of Osiris)
07 in the cold
08 time to go feat. Matic Štemberger
09 shut my eyes
10 at the break of dawn
11 noises
12 imago
13 ko te ni
14 preteklost feat. Gregor Strasbergar – Štras (Mrfy)
15 ne iščem več besed
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