#katatonia — Public Fediverse posts

In a week where I was forced to bail on my half of a double review of Warning’s righteous comeback due to time constraints, a new band from Italy found their way into my ears and heart, offering succor and sweet redemption. In Vespro play doom-death in the vein of early Katatonia, Paradise Lost, and my much beloved Rapture. On their Where Silence Used to Sleep debut, they pull out all the stops to make a tried-and-true style sound as fresh in 2026 as it did back in 1993. Featuring members of Svart Vinter and Veil of Conspiracy,1 In Vespro demonstrate a firm grasp of the sadboi essentials, crafting anthems to despair, loss, and hopelessness with hooks that stick in your swollen tear ducts and keep you hanging around for all the weepy unhappiness. That’s how you get Steel in the yard to have a good cry!

As soon as opener “Fading Hollow” takes flight, you’re cast back to Katatonia’s Brave Murder Day era for a sullen simmer in the crockpot of eternal sadness. It’s instantly likeable and after a few spins, lovable. The morose riffs and glum harmonies conjure the melancholies, and frontman Luca Gagnoni’s vocals are perfect; no clean singing, just a wounded death roar. Can you complain that it’s too close to the Brave Murder Day sound? No, because that way madness lies. “Ghost Inside Tomorrow” is like a long-lost Rapture song, and that gets my full attention. The heaving, sighing guitars also bear the pungent stench of prime Paradise Lost. “Absence Becomes Her” keeps the dour times rolling with an upbeat pace, but the mood remains despondent, even when they spice things up with some unexpectedly noodly guitar work.

By the album’s mid-point, I was so impressed that I started to doubt the second half could keep pace. It does, with killer cuts like “Beneath the Unseen,” which feels deceptively simple on first exposure, led by some very Paradise Lost-adjacent guitar lines, but it does just enough with the classic melodoom formula to make things percolate with pain and remorse. “Ashes of the Dawn” is another textbook example of how to write effective melodoom and make it stick to the ribs. It’s unhurried and grim, but the melody in the weepy guitars carries you along effortlessly from segment to segment. “The Last Light” could’ve fallen off the back of the Draconian Times tour van, so you know that’s a win. Happily, no song feels like filler, and the album functions well as a whole. At a tight, trim 40 minutes and with all songs in the 3-5 minute window, the album moves at a near-perfect pace, and no song overstays its welcome. In fact, several cuts are all the better for their brevity, leaving you wanting more. The production is great with a warm sound and a mix that allows the guitars the weight and space they need for maximum effect, while leaving plenty of room for everything else to breathe.

The guitar tandem of Luca Gagnoni and Emanuaels Marino is a talented one, spinning somber leads that submerge the soul in icy grave water. The harmonies are subtle but impactful and funerary, and the sudden flashes of semi-wanky solos are a nice surprise. Gagnoni is aces as a melodoom vocalist, moving effectively between early days Jonas Renkse and Nick Holmes death bellows and more acerbic blackened wails. There’s no clean singing whatsoever, only occasional spoken word segments. This isn’t an issue, but a few forlorn singing stanzas would make for a nice change-up. If there’s a complaint to be made, it’s how close In Vespro cleave to their obvious influences. It’s impossible to spin this and not hear Katatonia and Rapture looming large in the writing, but when it’s done well, does it really matter? The short answer is fook no.

Where Silence Used to Sleep is a very impressive debut from In Vespro, and it’s quite an effective mood piece album. Mark it as one of those unheralded and happy surprises the promo sump vomits forth when the stars align and the tentacles favor the bold. I may have missed my chance to weigh in on Warning, but I caught this dark beauty as a consolation prize. Life is good (and sad).

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 11 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Meuse Music
Websites: invespro.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/invesprodoom | instagram.com/invespro_doommetal
Releases Worldwide: June 19th, 2026

Hanging Garden – Isle of Bliss Review https://www.allforgardening.com/1664332/hanging-garden-isle-of-bliss-review/ #2026 #4.0 #AgoniaRecords #DoomMetal #FinnishMetal #garden #GothicMetal #HangingGarden #Insomnium #IsleOfBliss #Katatonia #Mar26 #MelodicDeathMetal #Review #reviews #SwallowTheSun #Vesseles

For nearly twenty years, Hanging Garden have quietly dabbled in the same sort of melodic melancholy as their more well-known counterparts, Katatonia, Insomnium, and Swallow the Sun. I first wandered into their brand of gothic sadboi melodoom with 2021’s Skeleton Lake, thanks to Steel’s glowing writeup. While I’ve enjoyed what I’ve heard from them since, what really hooked me was their 2025 EP, The Unending. They really honed their melodic game, particularly with an incredible hook on “Morgan’s Trail,” and I was hopeful this EP was a sign of a new direction for the band. Well, they do take a new direction, but not quite the one I expected. Despite its cheerful name, Isle of Bliss proves to be a much darker work than you may be accustomed to from this septet. Their newfound darkness opens up layers of depth, proving the band capable of bringing out beauty from even the darkest depths.

Despite the darker direction, Hanging Garden still dabble in a wide range of moods. On Isle of Bliss, they skillfully blend crushing riffs and Toni Hatakka’s deathly, muscular growls with gentle arpeggios and soft croons from Riikka Hatakka. Opener “To Outlive the Nine Ravens” illustrates this perfectly, as it blends dark growls with lovely trem melodies and a gentle duet with some more feel-good trems in an energetic tune that starts the record off right. Isle of Bliss then takes an unsettling turn on “Eternal Trees of Turquoise,” which features a duet of a different nature, where Toni’s menacing growls mix with Riikka’s sinister blackened rasps. Her performance reminded me a lot of the demon vocalist from Vesseles earlier this year, and it is a chilling turn away from the usual foil to Toni’s harsh growls. Things take yet another turn on the appropriately named “Isle of Bliss” and deceptively named “To the Gates of Hel.” These cheerful tunes feature uplifting guitar tones and some wonderfully catchy choruses sure to put your fearful heart at ease. In sum, Isle of Bliss is a moody beast that will hit you in all the feels.

Isle of Bliss by Hanging Garden

Isle of Bliss contains lush beauty thanks to its patient and melodic songwriting. At times, Hanging Garden shines a light through the darkness with soaring choruses and powerful melodic guitar leads that turn gloom into cheer. On “The Blights Nine,” a trem lead dispels the terrifying horror of Riikka’s rasps, while on “Arise, Black Sun,” the guitar melody transforms a growling duet into a piece of blackened beauty. The tremolos and the tour-de-force vocal performances from the Hatakka pair are not the only aspects that elevate the music. Hanging Garden use chugging, thick riffs to cast a doomy pall, whispery synths to invoke dreamy atmospherics, and piano segments to produce feelings of tranquility. All of these elements coalesce on the atmospheric climax, “Her Wailing Light,” whose beautiful chorus is a wonder in a sea of some great moments throughout Isle of Bliss.

As much as I didn’t want this record to end, there are a few areas where Hanging Garden could have done some trimming. “To Outlive the Nine Ravens” and “To the Gates of Hel” creep nearly into the seven-minute range, where their repetitive, formulaic nature begins to grow thin. Yet they are such terrific songs that the desire to stretch them out is forgivable. Perhaps the biggest letdown is the finale, “Beneath the Fallen Sky,” an atmospheric piece that lacks the punch of preceding tracks. “Her Waning Light” feels like a much more appropriate closer, with its emotional trem lead followed by such a tranquil conclusion. “Beneath the Fallen Sky” may fit a narrative arc as a resolution, and it’s really not a bad song, yet I think it’s just in the nature of resolutions to sometimes feel unsatisfying in the wake of highly emotional moments that precede them.

While I am a relative newbie to Hanging Garden, as far as I can tell, Isle of Bliss is their finest achievement to date. The addition of darker aspects to their sound, while remaining true to their roots, brings depth to their songwriting. Almost every song packs a wallop thanks to powerful singing and incredibly catchy and evocative guitar leads. This band poured their heart and soul into this one. It is a stunning record that will leave you in a state of bliss from start to finish.

Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 256 kbps mp3
Label: Agonia Records
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: March 20th, 2026

HERETOIR – Solastalgia Review

By Owlswald

Fall in the Pacific Northwest means two things: foggy air and the official start of sadboi season. And German post-black quintet HERETOIR are here to offer a choice soundtrack for the colder, darker months ahead. Since its inception as a solo project by multi-instrumentalist David Conrad in 2006, HERETOIR has been a mainstay in the blackgaze scene, crafting music that has been a long-standing source of catharsis while operating in the darkness with other well-known acts like Alcest and Fen. Solastalgia marks the trio’s fourth full-length album, but the first one we’ve reviewed here. Still, the group’s presence at AMG Industries isn’t entirely new. On the heels of their 2017 sophomore album The Circle, drummer Nils Groth spoke candidly in an interview with staff emeritus Muppet about how music can be a vital outlet for dealing with mental health. Since then, HERETOIR shifted to a collaborative songwriting process to define the darker and ethereal sound of their third album, Nightsphere. That same collaborative spirit now forms the core of Solastalgia, which explores themes of alienation and grief over the loss of our natural world.

Crafted to be an immersive listen, Solastalgia follows a heavy-light-heavy progression. High-energy tracks like “You are the Night,” “Burial” and “The Ashen Falls” boast the crunchy riffs, trem-picked guitars and rhythmic aggression of The Circle, while “Dreamgatherer,” “The Heart of December” and “Rain” shift toward the softer Alecstian sounds of Nightsphere during Solastalgia’s more contemplative middle. Groth absolutely pummels his kit for over an hour with tight blasts, hard-hitting hardcore rhythms, and eclectic fills that add tons of stylistic flair. Likewise, Conrad delivers a standout vocal performance, adding to the material’s raw, emotional feel with Katatonian sadboi cleans and Novembre-like murmurs contrasting blood-curdling screams and sweeping choral hooks. A high-quality production, with a smothering bass tone and cinematic elements like spoken word (“The Ashen Falls”), piano (“Solastalgia,” “Rain”,) and flute (“Season of Grief”) magnifies the immense emotional weight of HERETOIR’s music, creating a charged, multilayered atmosphere fraught with inner conflict and catharsis.

HERETOIR is adept at building a palpable sense of tension and releasing it through explosive crescendos, weaving a rich sonic tapestry of contrasting dynamics. They masterfully execute this formula across the album’s ten1 tracks with serene, reverb-drenched blackgaze textures juxtaposed by furious blasts, crushing breakdowns and soaring choruses. On “Inertia,” a pensive beginning of ominous piano and cascading tremolos abruptly halts—a pin-drop then detonates, unleashing a devastating maelstrom of thick distortion and ear-piercing screams that propels the track forward. “Season of Grief” is a dynamic journey that gradually builds momentum, shifting from unexpected death metal passages to a quiet, ghostly acoustic bridge before an epic, atmospheric crescendo—driven by Groth’s technical fills—brings the song to an enthralling conclusion. Throughout Solastalgia’s runtime, Conrad’s fluid vocals are key to fusing the album’s wide influences. He seamlessly transitions from soaring, Howard Jones-esque (Killswitch Engage) cleans (“You Are the Night”) to a grief-stricken fry (“Inertia”) and even burly death metal growls (“Season of Grief”), balancing accessibility with profound sorrow and grief.2

With such emotional veracity, an album of Solastalgia’s caliber could easily become too emotionally taxing. But HERETOIR deftly prevents listener burnout by bookending the record with its most expansive compositions. However, while this structure largely succeeds, Solastalgia’s flow is somewhat disrupted by the back-to-back placement of softer tracks like “Dreamgatherer” and “The Heart of December.” Although these tracks provide necessary breaks, their weaker hooks and limited variation make Solastalgia’s middle—from “Rain” through “The Heart of December”—feel a bit like a slog. Furthermore, the inclusion of “Metaphor,” an In Flames cover, at the very end detracts from the album’s flow and would have been better suited as a bonus track.

Even with its minor flaws, Solastalgia provides the perfect welcome to colder and darker seasons, offering a soundtrack for those who seek catharsis and solace in confronting inner turmoil. It successfully blends the best of The Circle and Nightsphere, creating a powerful and immersive tour de force of emotional intensity. Its songwriting takes listeners on a musical journey through a spectrum of genres, from serene blackgaze to aggressive hardcore, progressive death metal, and even screamo. For those drawn to the dark and melancholic, HERETOIR has created a record that successfully fuses their past into an experience that is sure to satisfy.

Rating: Very Good!
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: AOP Records
Websites: heretoir.bandcamp.com/album/solastalgia | heretoir.com | facebook.com/heretoir
Releases Worldwide: September 19th, 2025

#2025 #35 #Alcest #AOPRecords #AtmosphericBlackMetal #BlackMetal #Fen #GermanMetal #Heretoir #InFlames #Katatonia #KillswitchEngage #Novembre #PostMetal #Review #Reviews #Sep25 #Shoegaze #Solastalgia