{"id":413566,"date":"2026-02-07T21:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T21:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/413566\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T21:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T21:58:08","slug":"profane-elegy-herezjarcha-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/413566\/","title":{"rendered":"Profane Elegy – Herezjarcha Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Herezjarcha\u2014Arch-Heretic\u2014is the sophomore of Pennsylvania-based Profane Elegy, who are determined to escape genre boundaries. Following the trajectory set by 2023\u2019s When All is Nothing, it sees the co-existence if not coalescence of black and death metal, but also an atmospheric, ambient kind of doom, and only doubles down on each aspect. It\u2019s not the first time a metal artist has claimed to eschew categorization, and many, if not most, modern artists in extreme subgenres borrow from less extreme ones and incorporate generous reverb. Profane Elegy\u2019s claims, therefore, don\u2019t excite special interest whether you\u2019ve heard the debut or not; listeners dis\/like their sound on its own terms. However, there is actually something different about the way they combine their disparate aspects, and Herezjarcha is all the stronger for it.<\/p>\n

Dropped blindly into Herezjarcha at any random moment, you\u2019d be forgiven for taking it for trve blackened death\u2014reminiscent in particular of Keres, or a less-polished Vredehammer. Rough snarls rip like cold wind across mean-faced arpeggios skittering their way up and down sinister scales to unforgiving percussive assaults, satisfyingly gnarly. But with a snap, Profane Elegy\u2019s mood swings from malice to despair, and clean vocals lead a mournful refrain, layered, post-black strums dominating the soundscape. Opener \u201cExeunt Omnes,\u201d which begins\u2014as many others do\u2014with wild, thrashy black metal energy, prefigures the way the album repeatedly changes the vibe and takes its listener by surprise, as the riffs soften and are joined by softly sung \u201cohh-hh-hh\u201ds. Their blackened base is rent by change, from stripped-back ambience to hearty sung-screamed duets, black n\u2019 roll irreverence to sludgy blackened doom and frosty black metal proper. Though sounding very little alike in actuality, the best comparison to Profane Elegy\u2019s marrying of a vibrant blackened death with overt melodicism led by cleans is Slugdge. Herezjarcha is far more intriguing and multifaceted than may appear on face value.<\/p>\n

\ufeffHerezjarcha by Profane Elegy<\/a><\/p>\n

Profane Elegy do nothing by half-measures, and throw themselves with equal vigour into both their heavier and softer sides. Their blackened death is gnarly and dynamic, whether overtly aggressive (\u201cI AM\u201d) or in squealing, drawling pursuit of flair and acrobatics (\u201cHaunted\u201d \u201cAnd Then We Are Gone\u201d). The second-wave-adjacent harsh vocal production, slightly muted and noisy, adds to the overall rawness, intensifying the more straightforwardly brutal and giving grit to the more melodic, atmospherically inclined. On the former side, things really do get heavy, and the churning, howl-ridden soundscape is irresistible, but as the album progresses, it\u2019s the latter that sees Profane Elegy doing some genuinely cool things. Eerie scales blend into a layered cascade of strums (\u201cAs My Heart Turns to Ash\u201d), or invite the chords of melancholia to join them (\u201cThe Accuser\u201d); more and more space is devoted to variously stripped-back quiet. Things don\u2019t just hang in reverb; space opens in which a savage riff briefly grows mournful, and after few turns of tension, an almost gazey feel prevails as cleans take the lead (\u201cAs My Heart\u2026\u201d). It\u2019s not the addition of atmosphere that\u2019s good, it\u2019s how Profane Elegy positions a mournful, post-adjacent mood with their harsh blackened side that manages to not sacrifice either, even when combined.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Yet, in committing as fully as they do to the spirit and execution of their disparate visages, Profane Elegy demonstrate that they haven\u2019t quite refined the formula for their coexistence. The churning, variously vicious and epic blackened death on display on Herezjarcha is raucously enjoyable, while the vulnerability and atmosphere brought in by other influences create a powerful emotionality and works very well in combination. This doesn\u2019t prevent the slightly awkward way one transitions to the other\u2014particularly in the record\u2019s first half. The balance and integration do improve as the runtime progresses, to the extent that the latter end, if stretched to the length of a full LP, would receive a higher score of at least one half figure. Still, the difference in the sound between the raw and ugly and the comparatively glossy is marked and can give the impression that one is suddenly listening to a totally different artist when the former switches places entirely for the other.<\/p>\n

What Profane Elegy do achieve with Herezarcha, however, is to assert their skill and personality. Amidst a sea of underground metal artists pitching their bold and subversive takes, Profane Elegy stand in the sureness of honest distinction. They might not have cracked the complete execution yet, at a slim 38 minutes, Herezarcha is more than worth the time it takes to experience their unpolished expression.<\/p>\n

Rating: Good
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 192 kbps mp3
Label: Self-Release
Websites: Bandcamp<\/a> | Facebook<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: January 30th, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Herezjarcha\u2014Arch-Heretic\u2014is the sophomore of Pennsylvania-based Profane Elegy, who are determined to escape genre boundaries. Following the trajectory set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[47816,6446,6447,85405,28214,54246,96,153138,138243,153139,108185,128,73025,153140,263,129,30469,56,54,55,153141],"class_list":["post-413566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-47816","tag-3-0","tag-american-metal","tag-atmospheric-black-metal","tag-black-metal","tag-blackened-death-metal","tag-entertainment","tag-herezjarcha","tag-jan26","tag-keres","tag-melodic-black-metal","tag-music","tag-post-metal","tag-profane-elegy","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-self-releases","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-vredehammer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}