Review: “To Be Forgotten” by Helve

Eight long years after they self released their debut EP “Faint Hope” in 2015, the arrival of a debut album in “To Be Forgotten” from Leeds based Post-Metal act Helve can only be considered a labour of love. Having enjoyed sharing stages with the like minded individuals in Hundred Year Old Man, Conjurer and Blanket in their time together, the five piece have yearned to bring the strength of the emotional feeling of those live performances to their commitments to tape. Lyrics are constructed from personal experience to be accompanied by their carefully constructed music that rises and falls to create a flow from a trickle to a river to the sea and take the listener on a journey quite unlike any other…

As a song “Dark Clouds” has been around for a while, a live rendition released officially in April 2019 some ten seconds shorter than this twelve and a half minute opening piece. Four years on, this version aches as it burns to be with a devilishly slow and yet beautifully graceful crawl out from the darkness into the light. Soaked in rich, sombre and sobering melody emanating from influences in Doom Metal, the first half of the song is as delicate as flower with the haunting sense that something wicked this way comes. That materialises after an eight minute build up as the border is crossed into Sludge Metal territory with in increased intensity and sense of urgency, the raw vocals coming from a place of grief and loss. Mixing harsh uncleans with spoken word, these are the cries of a desperate soul and for anyone who has been touched by the invisible hand of depression or trouble times, they resonate like a bullet ricochet floating around the skull.

After that powerful statement piece, Helve dispense with the extended instrumental introduction and bring in the harsh screamed vocals early on “Guns Heal The Sick“. A distinctive Post-Metal cut which orientates around dirty riffs equally as melodic as they are abrasive. The over aching sounds are those that sit in a half way house between demo and studio recording, deliberately kept raw with a faux aged quality to them as if recorded on analogue equipment live from the floor. That’s something which adds an ocean deep depth, texture and charm that modern production with everything sounding clean and crisp often doesn’t have.

Another twelve minute magnum opus makes for the third instalment of the record in “Bones Of Giants“, a song with clear movements that could have been segmented but work together in perfect harmony with slick transitions. From the dull ache of the opening four minutes or so, the step up onto a monstrous mid section is sublime with distant echoes of the work of bands like Desert Storm and Progressive Sludge Metal riffs to be worshipped. Rising from the black depths, ambient notes feel like whale calls to bring the piece to an unnatural end, its middle distance gazing qualities a demonstration of the prowess of Helve.

Where do go from there? Twenty minutes in solitary confinement with “Teeth” reverberating from the walls. Some odd time signatures from the kit give the opening moments an unnerving sense of battery acid nausea while the unclean vocals threaten to be dragged under by the crushing guitars. A heavier, darker and more abrasive passage with a greater hunger and sense of urgency in the riff department is captivating before fading into a melancholic stupor and building back up once more in noteworthy fashion. Fleeting cathartic unclean vocals are given almost ethereal clean backing from another vocal layer, drawing the listener into a hypnotic trance of adoration and addiction to the darkness from which there is no escape. The siren calls from the void with an ambient passage rising from the dark and cold surroundings, the bleak and barren nature of the creations of Helve not to be underestimated… [7.5/10]

Track Listing

1. Dark Clouds
2. Guns Heal The Sick
3. Bones Of Giants
4. Teeth

“To Be Forgotten” by Helve is out 29th September 2023 via Ripcord Records in physical edition here and digitally here.