heavy-metal-darkness: Hæresis | Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum

Monday, October 20, 2025

Hæresis | Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum | Vendetta Records

Release Date: October 10, 2025
Format: Digital/Vinyl/CD
Genre: Black Metal
Country: Germany

Berlin’s Hæresis have been slowly building their name in the underground since their 2016 demo, and after years of careful creation, they finally strike with their debut full-length, “Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum.” The title translates to “If you want peace, prepare for war,” which perfectly mirrors the tension running through the album. It’s an imposing work of modern black metal that balances atmosphere, emotional depth, and sheer aggression with precision.

The sound here is immediately gripping-icy tremolo guitars wrapped in sweeping ambience, roaring vocals that border on ritualistic chants, and percussion that hits with martial intensity. The band layers their black metal foundation with cinematic textures and post-metal grandeur, giving the music an almost apocalyptic quality. Daniel Ringl’s production at Lichtlaerm Audio gives the album a massive scope, and Dave Otero’s mastering brings sharp definition to every surge of chaos and introspection.

Vocalist Christin Graunke delivers an unflinching performance, channeling rage, despair, and disillusionment with a personal intensity and confrontational. The guest appearances from Natalya Androsova and Yaryna Borynets add emotional dimension, haunting, mournful, and human amid the sonic violence. The lyrics are steeped in philosophical unease and social decay, touching on themes of alienation, the corrosion of belief, and the machinery of oppression. There’s no comfort here, only reflection through turmoil.

Each track grows like a storm. “Echoes Of Ashes” expands in waves of tension and release, while “I Who Repel All Light” moves with a trance-like menace that feels ceremonial. “Drifting Beyond Times Grasp” pushes further into the abstract, and “Eradicate Taciturnity” closes the album in devastating fashion; its intensity gradually folding into a lingering silence that feels earned.

“Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum” is not an easy listen but it will reward you. Hæresis has created an album that immerses the listener in fury and contemplation. It stands firmly within the lineage of European black metal, but its soundscape and production expand the borders of that tradition without losing its spirit. For a debut, it’s a strikingly cohesive and expressive work, focused and sincere. It demands full attention and gives back an experience that is as cathartic as it is punishing.

Score: 8.0