Review by Alex on March 10, 2024.

Heresiarch has delivered their best album to date. What you are going to hear on Edifice easily tramples everything they had created. Edifice is so violent and relentless it makes Death Ordinance sound like child's play. The non-stop barrage of riffs pelted at you, the technical yet thunderous blasting and vocal vitriol speak of the sheer compositional seriousness of Heresiarch. These guys don't fuck around, they knew that if they were going to make the underworld wait nearly 7 years for their sophomore record, it had to display maturity and a fuck ton of improvement over their debut full-length installment. Death Ordinance was released through Dark Descent Records and saw a generally well-received and successful reception, this fucking Monster called Edifice sounds like Heresiarch wanted to end the world. Set for April 12th, 2024, the death dealers in coordination with the venerated Iron Bonehead Productions apply the master touch of sonic venom to the underground and beyond.

'Forged Doctrine' presents its ugly face to the listener and it's all hell from there onwards. Bringing together the blistering fast segments that segue into doomy passages and back straight up caveman style drum thumping, there is a beauty in this chaos that only a listener that wants to be absorbed would enjoy. Not to mention, the catchiness of this composition has you grooving to the motion of the rhythm. The template is somewhat bare-bones from a distance but once you spend more time with the material you will discover the diligence it must have required to piece together something of such immense proportions and near immaculate timing. By the time you pass the muscular songwriting of 'Noose Bove The Abyss', you realize Edifice is more than just another record from the New Zealanders, it's a statement made to those who doubt the resilience and knowledge of Heresiarch.

Tracks are mostly exceeding the sweet spot of 5 minutes to accommodate the instrumental depth of Heresiarch's songwriting on Edifice. You'll also notice that when a new track is introduced, the songwriting goes up a tad bit, therefore giving the listener somewhat of a challenge to keep up as far as reading and trying to predict the band's next move on the black/death metal chess board. It's very noticeable on tracks such as 'Gloryless Execution' and my favorite track, 'A World Lit Only By Fire' (ain't that a badass song title or what?); just love the segue into that black metal passage. Each track on the album sounds so complete it's almost as if you would ruin it but either adding or subtracting anything from them. Nothing seems rushed or misplaced, it is just thoroughly thought out and well executed.

Each new track sounds as if it's a continuous extension of the Intro ('Forged Doctrine'), with every passing second posing a new challenge for the listener to be engaged in all the while sticking to the principle of their black/death metal sound. Painting furious yet melancholic landscapes with their black metal hand and imploding the hemisphere through flammable whacks at the drum kit as heard on 'Militate Phyrric Collapse' (oh and that scream around 4:15 sounds like the one featured on Impetuous Ritual's ‘Inservitude Of Asynchronous Duality'), Edifice reaches it Zenith, and paints an everlasting image with a permanent caption that warns all Heresiarch are not to be fucked with!!!!

Rating: 10 out of 10