‘For fans of Dissection, Emperor and Arcturus!’ Yeah, right.
If you dare to compare yourself to Dissection, Emperor, or, excuse me, masters of avant-garde metal Arcturus, you have to come up with some serious black material, as far as I’m concerned. Let’s put it plainly: The Heretic does not even dwell remotely near the mountain ranges in which those three Scandinavian acts peak. Playing a riff or two that may recall some of the aforementioned bands is not the same as making comparable music. Experimental is not immediately avant-garde. In terms of vocals, melodies, atmospheres and vicious guitars there are oceans of differences between these Spanish metallers and those bands. So, come on, if you try to promote your album please write something sensible and do compare the band you wish the best for to acts that really resemble your style. Instead, The Heretic (or their promoters, XTREEM MUSIC, for that matter) drags three iconic grandmasters of extreme music to the fore. Why not, they must have been thinking. Well, I’ll tell you: because, even if arrogance is a highly valued Black Metal virtue, ignorance isn’t, and this is just too much of it. Maybe they’ve mistaken their inspirators to play metal at all for their stylistic referentials? Well, anyway, please put some things in perspective.
So, if The Heretic are miles away from the aforementioned bands… where are they? I’d say The Heretic set up their camp amidst progressive Death Metal acts like Death, experimental bands like, for example, Mörk Gryning at the time of their ‘Pieces Of Primal Expressionism’ or even Skyfire, and a bunch of symphonic Black Metal bands. They are a solid band and practise technically accomplished guitar play in a style that I’d call blackened Death Metal.

They use a lot of electronics and at moments create moody symphonic passages which they actually do quite good. In some songs, they add clean vocals and experiment with a lot of complex, sudden breaks and disharmonic leads and (keyboard) solos. I’d rate the individual songs between good and average, emphasis on the latter. Their experiments sometimes just seem to miss the point, or at least do not add any tension to the music. Songs like ‘Did I Say Why I Hate You’ or ‘We Have Turned Them Into Saints’ show absolutely uninteresting riffage and structures.
Especially ‘The Day Of Our Lord’ is constructed of simply boring down-tempo melodic Death Metal and apart from the accompanying synths shows absolutely nothing new. On the other hand, in the song ‘Today’ The Heretic are really riffing out elegantly, and in ‘Ashamed’ they prove that they have original ideas about progressive symphonic metal, with effective use of organs at the end of the track. My general impression is that of a band that really tries to achieve their own, original style and might be close to accomplish that goal. In the meantime Death Metal fans who are looking for some experimental detraction from the basic brutal approach, or symphonic Black Metallers who can appreciate a dose of Death Metal influence, might like ‘Gospel Songs In E Minor’. For myself I can say that the more I listened to this album, the more I started to appreciate their music, but it never reached the necessary jubilant level.

The Heretic might show some good things in the future, but I’ll repeat, please do yourself, the band, and our old dark masters justice and try to label The Heretic for what they are, okay?