01. The Ashen Falls
02. Season Of Grief
03. You Are The Night
04. Inertia
05. Rain
06. Dreamgatherer
07. The Heart Of December
08. Burial
09. Solastalgia
10. The Same Hell (MMXXV)
11. Metaphor [In Flames cover]

After releasing what is (or at least what I consider to be) one of the more remarkable albums within the ‘blackgaze’ niche, Heretoir took a bit of a step backwards on the originality front with a very Alcest-indebted follow-up record. Solastalgia heads back in the right direction in terms of novelty and character, but still falls short of what the band accomplished with The Circle.

It can be tricky to find the right tone for reviews when a band stumbles across a truly winning formula on one particular record, as one becomes prone to using that album as the standard against which subsequent efforts are judged. Although it was a very impressive advancement from the band’s self-titled debut, The Circle isn’t a release that I would want Heretoir to feel obligated to replicate or mimic going forward. At the same time, it’s hard not to think that the reduced variety and originality of Nightsphere was a step down in comparison. Solastalgia remains within the same general musical style as its predecessors, but it has differences to distinguish itself from each of those past releases.

After the increased song length and reduced runtime of Nightsphere, this new release is back more in the mould of The Circle; the album is no quick and easy effort, with a runtime exceeding an hour, but there’s a healthy mix of longer songs and more bitesized tracks, with Heretoir making effective use of the varying runtimes. Solastalgia is best labelled as post-rock or blackgaze above any other genre, but it is not as nakedly reminiscent of Alcest as last time around; the tremolo textures, mixed clean/harsh vocals, soft/loud dynamic ebbs and flows, and occasional surges of extreme metal instrumentation are very familiar to fans of the genre, but are rendered in a way that doesn’t feel overly similar to any one act. The closest I found myself to making a comparison to any band was a couple of moments where the clean singing captured a vibe somewhat akin to Kardashev, particularly early in “Season Of Grief”, but largely I think Heretoir can be said to be doing ‘their own thing’ here.

Opening track and lead single “The Ashen Falls” is a good introduction into said ‘thing’; opening with gazey tremolo riffs, it utilizes higher-pitched harsh vocals in the verses, before weaving pleasant textures and melodies alongside clean vocals in the chorus. It’s one of several tracks to feature a mid-song lull and build, and the grandiose soaring and textured clean vocals of its climax makes for a satisfying first taste of the record. “You Are The Night” is another early song to up the ante and bring the passion in the chorus, with vocals that are backed up by pleasant and busy guitar tapping.

There’s a few recurring approaches across the album. Both “Dreamgatherer” and “The Heart Of December” have delicate introductions that are accentuated by big, reverberating tom-heavy drumming. The tracks that are perhaps more prone to blurring together are the three longest ones; ranging between 8 and 10 minutes, “Season Of Grief”, “Dreamgatherer” and the title track all have varying ebbs and flows, each making use of blast beats in key moments while also containing tranquil or sullen lulls, and swelling to satisfying climaxes of varying intensities.

Overall, I consider Solastalgia to be a step up from Nightsphere, and at its best (such as in the fairly diversely dynamic “Inertia”, perhaps the standout track here) it has a good amount to offer. I do think it struggles in a couple of areas, however. While there’s plenty of dynamic range, the tone of Solastalgia is a bit one-note; it lingers in that slightly sad but somewhat saccharine space that makes everything dainty, but it lacks the melancholia and darkness that Heretoir regularly dug into on The Circle. It’s only really towards the end of the album, and particularly on “Burial”, that some range is demonstrated courtesy of a darker, heavier sound.

On top of that, there’s also a lack of memorability that does hurt the album; while the guitars shimmer and clean vocals soar, the album generally struggles to replicate the immediately gripping riffs or more elaborate hooks that made The Circle such a standout release. Across several listens, I’ve enjoyed the minute-to-minute listening to Solastalgia, but I’ve found little that’s broken through to really compel me to revisit it. I don’t think that the situation is helped by the album’s ending; after the wide-ranging title track, the band include “The Same Hell MMXXV”, a very soporific clean-only track that lacks impact but could make for a reasonable denouement, but then they also follow that with a cover of In Flames’s “Metaphor” (a song I’ve always been somewhat fond of) that is perfectly competent, but adds little while not really fitting the tone of the preceding album. What’s more, the song’s innate memorability does rather highlight the relative lack of memorability preceding it.

In spite of the more negative sentiments in the past couple of paragraphs, I do rather like Solastalgia; from another band, I would consider it one of the more charming and alluring blackgaze releases of the past year or so. However, its flaws do feel quite clear, and stand out further when set against the lack of said flaws on a previous effort by the same band. Solastalgia is getting closer to what Heretoir should strive towards, but it is not them at their very best.