Orchestra set from legendary EastWest Studios coming our way
Hei’An never made a big secret out of their ambition to aim for the stars – thus, it isn’t surprising how much of a rise the post-progressive metal collective from the heart of Slovenia has made in a rather short time. After the first single inferno from the upcoming album imago, which delighted fans and critics alike, Hei’An are now ready to release their next single in the cold. The song captures the essence of the bands philosophy just perfectly, carefully combining tender and intimate vocals with heavy, upbuilding instrumentals.
The dark, atmospheric video for in the cold completes the overall artistic impression of the single and the band’s vision:
And of course Hei’An won’t just stop there – in fact, they will soon be wandering the halls of true legends, recording an orchestral set in the fabled EastWest Studios, that have to this day hosted exceptional artists, being a creative hub for many outstanding musicians of our time. “EastWest Studio 2 is booked for October, and we are hard at work to make this the most special moment of our career so far!”, Hei’An mastermind Matic Blagonič announces and explains how the whole thing came across:
“Matej Gobec and I went to NAMM in Los Angeles in June and met and hung out with a bunch of amazing, some even legendary, people there – Tosin Abasi, Rabea Massaad, Sylvia Massy, Allen Sides, Mike St Jean, Stu Brooks, Thai Long Ly and many many others – we even saw Stevie Wonder there, and we finally got to meet Randy (Slaugh, who did the orchestrations and additional programming for us) in person, and chat with him a bit, which was really cool. Anyway, the whole experience really inspired us and one morning Matej suggested to me that we should do our live session in EastWest Studios in LA, where acts like Nirvana, The Rolling Stones, Muse, Metallica and many other legends have recorded before. I immediately fell in love with the idea, and I knew that if we were going to do this, we needed to make this extra special.” And that’s surely what it’s gonna be!
The orchestral set will be released later this year, around the album release of imago on November 25th.
About Hei’An
Originally a one-man project by Slovenian musician Matic Blagonič, Hei’An has now evolved into a veritable collective of keen artists striving to bring Slovenian metal into our heads and hearts – successfully so! The band, who likes to think of their output as “Post-Progressive-Metal”, impressively manages to balance out both heavy sounds and tender emotions blossoming across a field of arcane post-metal-esque landscapes. Through the inspiration of names such as Alcest, Leprous or Together To The Stars, especially listeners of dreamy and deep metal songs will highly appreciate the upcoming album imago.
The concept album, which is set to be released on November 25th 2022 epicts a journey through a man’s inner hell and the challenge of overcoming inner demons and trauma. Touching on vile, yet sadly all too common topics such as toxic relationships, depression, loss or addiction, imago directs the listener through multiple circles of torment and tribulations – on the road to reemerging with a positive, reflected pattern.
The title imago – which is the name of the final track as well – comes from the last phase of development of growth for insects. While caterpillars are going through their imago stage, they become butterflies, free creatures with unique colors and a past. Summing up the album’s essence, Blagonič says: “It’s a metaphor for going through a bunch of hardships, yet in the end, spreading your wings as a beautiful butterfly, and moving forward better, stronger, more connected with yourself and more beautiful, especially on the inside. That’s why there is a butterfly on our album cover. But as you will notice, the butterfly still has slightly burnt and damaged wings – that is because when going through hardships, you can never just “forget” or “erase” what you’ve gone through, trauma will always stay with you, forever. But if you accept it, understand it (and yourself) and learn from it, you can still blossom into a beautiful butterfly, full of love and full of life.” The musical journey of Hei’An may have just begun – but with their highly lyrical, artistic approach toward heavy music, they are set to have a bright future in post-modern metal.
imago by Hei’An will be out via SAOL on November 25th 2022.
Get the album imago here:
Tracklist
01 semita tenebrarum
02 inferno feat. Oəlka (Malorshiga)
03 embers
04 can’t get out of my skin
05 escape
06 dreamer feat. Joe Buras (Born Of Osiris)
07 in the cold
08 time to go feat. Matic Štemberger
09 shut my eyes
10 at the break of dawn
11 noises
12 imago
13 ko te ni
14 preteklost feat. Gregor Strasbergar – Štras (Mrfy)
15 ne iščem več besed