Founded in 2021, Belgian outfit HRAEFN are a compelling metal trio, covering a lot of ground: influenced by heavy, stoner, as well as doom metal, they express themselves in a unique music style. Call it psychedelic doom n’ roll, if you will. Think purified and iconic riffs with some progressive tendencies, matched with eerie and emotive vocals to create pieces that sound like fever dreams, psychotic episodes, prayers of the damned. But what makes the borderline heavy/doom metal of HRAEFN really stand out, is the level of musicality and the collar-grabbing quality of their work.
The second EP of HRAEFN, “RESEARCH INTO INFINITY”, features Terence ‘Doom Foot’ Gevaert (Carneia, Her Fault) on the drums, who joined the band late 2023 and adds some extra firepower to the trio. This new release showcases some more southern/stoner influences in Michael Sremos’ (Witch Which?, Heavy Fox) heavy metal guitar playing, which really fits Tonny van Bavel’s (Staat van Genade) clean but fierce vocals and squirming bass playing. There’s a lot to unpack in this 3-song EP, but the surprises are discomfortingly pleasant.
IN THE BAND'S OWN WORDS:
"There is something about how we interact as a band. We get together with all our experience, our different influences and our pretty distinct playing styles and somehow this intense, fiery and psychedelic music comes out. Stuff we also don't always understand, but it does seem to understand us. Together we become this entity. We become HRAEFN.
Influence-wise, we all come from pretty different musical planets. Everybody has his own set of influences, so it's difficult to point in one or two specific directions. Michael is influenced by Death, Metallica and Black Sabbath, Terence would mention stuff like Candiria, Bowel and Kyuss, whereas Tonny's vocal style derives a lot from bands like Windhand and Mars Red Sky..."
WHAT'S NEXT:
Influence-wise, we all come from pretty different musical planets. Everybody has his own set of influences, so it's difficult to point in one or two specific directions. Michael is influenced by Death, Metallica and Black Sabbath, Terence would mention stuff like Candiria, Bowel and Kyuss, whereas Tonny's vocal style derives a lot from bands like Windhand and Mars Red Sky..."
WHAT'S NEXT:
“We're constantly creating new tracks and trying to re-invent everything we do. We don't like to stick to one particular thing or style. Creativity is something that really drives us, and to be able to put out more music is always a tough but very rewarding process. But of course we also really want to hit the stage again now with our new drummer and play for crowds, so we're working on a series of gigs in 2024 and 2025 as well. This is our main priority in the coming months.”
HRAEFN - Research Into Infinity
Album out Nov 15th, 2024
Self-released (Digital)
Antwerp, Belgium
FFO: Monolord, Melvins, Acid King
Recorded & mixed by Frank Rotthier
Mastered by Jens Larsson at Larsson Mastering
HRAEFN is:
Michael Sremos - Guitars
Terence Gevaert - Drums
Tonny van Bavel - Bass/Vocals
Tracklist:
Terence Gevaert - Drums
Tonny van Bavel - Bass/Vocals
Tracklist:
1. Research Into Infinity (6:36)
2. Arcadia (5:22)
3. Worldeater (8:46)
2. Arcadia (5:22)
3. Worldeater (8:46)
Links
Thanks to Good Boy PR for all of the info.