Heliovore is a (mostly) one man band. Heliovore writes instrumental drone rock music. Heliovore comes from St. Andrews, Scotland, and he has just released his first full length album that is just perfect.
Through The Gates was recorded in a garage in the summer of 2013 and it’s an engaging listen for those of you who want something playing in the background instead of listening to complete silence. The album consists of 5 songs spread over approximately 50 minutes that take me to the fog of Iceland or some similar landscapes in Scandinavia. This is what drone music does to me with its abundance of darkness that makes this kind of music so deep that each track becomes a personal piece.
Through The Gates has an instrumental rock feel with a heavy helping of ambient and drone sounds. The minimalistic approach is brilliant and if you like minimalistic experimentation in general this album is what you need. On this album you’ll also find a certain sense of melancholy but there is also a indefinable emotion that will be your company throughout the entire musical journey offered by Heliovore.
The opening track ‘A Part Of The Hivemind’ follows exactly the scheme of drone music. Someone might consider this song a little monotone due to its slow and repetitive sound. I find it an introspective track with different sounds and vibes able to transmit a dreamy pace. ‘Meaning’ is an ambient, transparent and harmonic song. Pretty moody. This song is a matter of intimacy and I really like it.
Through The Gates proceeds with the dark and gloomy ‘Ghosts in the Cognitive Labyrinth’. Depending on your mood, this track could be melancholic. Meanwhile others might find it depressing. I had the feeling to be in between of these two feelings and lost in the darkness with a repetitive and echoing drum whose sound fills all the space around me. The following songs have the same mood. In particular title track ‘Through The Gates’ is almost 12 minutes of the same sound and it’s not really the kind of song you sit down and listen to for the sole purpose of listening to it. It works better as a soundtrack.
I’m really interested in the last song title. Being so attracted by philosophy in general, the concepts of solipsism and nihilism combined in the last track is intriguing. Solipsism is the theory that the self is the only thing that can be known and verified; nihilism is an extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence. ‘Solipsism/Nihilism’, instead, is the last song title and writing a song inspired to these two concepts is really demanding. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been influenced by the title but ‘Solipsism/Nihilism’ anguishes me. The overall vibe is rather bleak and introspective. It’s a matter of you and your relationship with this song. And this song can be what you want.
‘Solipsism/Nihilism’ ends the musical journey Through The Gates that is a pretty solid album and demonstrates the talent of Heliovore in drone/ambient music. There’s simply such an incredible amount of intensity in this album and I do believe that this is just the first step in Heliovore’s production.
