Heid are a pretty young act from Spain, with former members of Liquid Graveyard and The Thousand Faces. They released a three-track demo in 2013 and shortly after, the band started working on a first EP, which this review will deal with. It’s a five-tracker that lasts for almost half an hour (the songs have duration in between four and eight minutes).
Voces De La Tierra Dormida brings highly melodic and epic Death / Black / Pagan Metal with folksy leads (not of the poppy kind), an energetic rhythm, a decent sound (the production is polished yet not clinical), lots of changes in tempo and melodic structure, and both grunts and screams. The lyrics are in their native tongue and deal with the rich history of the Iberian Peninsula. In the opener No Habra Paz, the band adds acoustic guitars and violin lines. These ones, the violins, are pretty prominent when used, and certainly a surplus, though not exaggerated in presence. Golpejar is much more ‘happy’-folksy (some kind of Eluveitie-meet-Finntroll, including the Polkka-melodies) and comes with keyboards (the intro on, for example, has a certain Summoning-alike atmosphere) and flutes. Also La Mano Negra, probably the heaviest track, has some flutes and acoustic guitars, and Ruido De Batalla (Golpejar Pt. II) once again comes with violins and some bombastic and atmospheric keyboards. El Canto De Los Responsos, the last and the longest track, is the ultimate finishing touch, melting everything Voces De La Tierra Dormida did offer. It opens with a nice intro, done by dual flutes and tribal percussion, then joined by mouth-harp, built up with acoustic guitars, before defining their own view on Pagan Music. The heavy track comes with harmonious choirs, brutal riffage, energetic drum patterns, and even majestic bathorian greatness.
Heid are not as intense and grim like Spanish (Basque / Catalonian) colleagues in the vein of, let’s say, Xerion, Aiumeen Basoa or Numen, but they will surely appeal to fans of everything in between Tumulus, Heidevolk, Finntroll, Månegarm, Arkona and even earlier Cruachan. I see a promising future…