Hemelbestormer - The Radiant Veil - review
Hemelbestormer - The Radiant Veil - review
Tracklist
01. Usil02. Turms
03. Turan
04. Cel
05. Tiur
06. Laran
07. Tinia
08. Satre
A review by
AndyMetalFreak August 09, 2025
Hemelbestormer (often abbreviated to HMBSM) is a Belgian post-metal foursome formed in 2012. The band consists of founding members Frederik Cosemans (keyboards/synths/drums), Jo Driesmans (guitars), and Filip Dupont (guitars), along with 2020 addition Koen Swerts (bass). Their style is primarily instrumental-based post-metal with doom and blackened elements often incorporated, and with the main focus on immersing listeners into cosmic-orientated soundscapes through mostly lengthy songs with richly diverse structures.
In recent years post-metal has been thriving, and becoming more instrumentally ambitious thanks to bands such as Thumos, Toundra, Pelican, and Russian Circles. These groups have incorporated various influences adding greater depth to their style, even with the absence of vocals. Hemelbestormer is another name to add to this list, as they don't just simply follow the regular post-metal cliches that typically involve repetitive rhythms, lengthy intensifying build-ups, and crushing crescendos. Their style now takes an even more ambitious and diverse route on their fourth full-length album. Throughout a hefty 66-minute duration, this latest offering transports listeners through another richly expansive musical journey into the outer cosmos, one that promises to be just as absorbing as the glorious otherworldly cover art.
Once again, the instrumentation is generally built around post-metal with blackened, doom and progressive metal elements incorporated, and is mostly instrumental-only, albet with both clean and harsh vocals sparingly used. It's composed with heavy and aggressive sections that traverse between lighter melancholic passages, and the song structures aren't typically repetitive or focused on lengthy intense build-ups, but rather unpredictable and sometimes progressive journeys. The idea is to draw listeners into a gripping atmospheric voyage that transports you to apocalyptic and inhospitable worlds, almost as if the music itself is resembling an expedition between different dimensions.
The Radiant Veil definitely ticks the right boxes for what's expected in modern post-metal. It's filled with emotion, dense atmospheres, crushing tones, beautiful soft melancholic moments, and has an overwhelming intensity about it, on top of which, it has some fascinating and unpredictable song structures along the way. The fact that each song has its own unique identity and atmosphere also plays a major part as to how this band sets itself apart from the crowd.
However, while it's certainly well composed and produced, and not short of an interesting idea or two, it's not always quite as engaging as you'd expect, given the diversity in songwriting and extensive runtime. The instrumentation can simply come across as middling, although other times intriguing, and this can lead to the constant change in atmosphere being more of hindrance than an immersive experience. The key for me here is consistency, and despite how well crafted this is, and how memorable some moments are, for me it just falls short on that front in the end.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 7 |
| Songwriting: | 7 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written on 09.08.2025 by
Written on 09.08.2025 by
An honest review that you don't necessarily have to agree with. Comments
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The last paragraph summarises perfectly my feelings about this album. Just like so so many post rock/metal releases, the melodies are just not memorable. I can imagine in a jam session they can be effective but when it comes to recording an album, you simply need to put more effort.
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