Album Review: Heretoir – Solastalgia (AOP Records)

German purveyors of soaring post metal and blackgaze, Heretoir are back with their brand-new album ‘Solastalgia’, out September 19th, 2025 via AOP Records.

Describing emotional and existential distress caused by the loss of the natural world, environmental change and the concept of home, Solastalgia is a very powerful listen. One that expands well beyond the genre trappings of post metal and blackgaze, even if it will find a lot of fans from both those sides. Alongside those who like their metal to have emotional depth, layers of soaring melodic beauty, and intense heaviness. A lot of people are going to love this, and for good reason.

It’s a colossal release, filled with expansive drama and emphatic intensity that comes from a wide variety of styles. It is not hyperbole in any way to describe the album as being erratic, but whereas that is often used to in negative fashion, here it sums up the diverse sound of the album, especially when it comes to the emotional value, which will differ per person.

Sometimes it’s obvious. A track like Season of Grief oozes melancholy, has Heretoir expertly transition from morose melody to manic metal in an instant, and cleverly rises and falls like a last breath. Whereas a track like The Ashen Falls is faster and more immediately attention-grabbing and You Are the Night is post-focused, more accessible, and has flashes of blackened flair.

There’s nearly twenty-two minutes of music with just those three tracks.

As I said, it’s a big one and that also applies to the length. Where Inertia can sound so imposing (the vocals are stunning), come in at around four-minutes, sit comfortably alongside the two-ish minutes of Rain’s pretty, but sad, piano melody, and the eight-minute wonder that is Dreamgatherer. It takes a brave, inspired, and confident band to release such a piece of work, but that’s Heretoir for you.

It’s incredible form and there might be no better example of their creative proficiency then The Heart of December and Burial. A pair that showcases elevated forlorn atmospheric rock and post-infused melody. Unique in their own ways but comfortably sitting alongside each other on an album that continues to reward the listener’s investment.

Case in point, the final big one (over nine-minutes long), the title track. Where Heretoir push the misery to new levels, and in doing so create a slew of beautiful, heart-wrenching, and hellaciously heavy moments throughout. It could have been the finale; such is its potency, and it is… sort of. As the last two tracks are a previously released stand-alone single and an In Flames cover. The former, The Same Hell (MMXXV), is haunting and kind of Twin Peaks-esque, whereas the latter, a cover of Metaphor, is very cool.

The album overall though? It’s Heretoir’s magnum opus, simple as that.

Heretoir – Solastalgia Track Listing:

1. The Ashen Falls
2. Season of Grief
3. You Are the Night
4. Inertia
5. Rain
6. Dreamgatherer
7. The Heart of December
8. Burial
9. Solastalgia
10. The Same Hell (MMXXV)
11. Metaphor (In Flames Cover)

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