Nous sommes HeoNiA, un groupe de Metal mélodique de la région lilloise dans le Nord de la France et dont le style est influencé par le prog, le heavy et le death...

And that pretty much captures the essence of this band from the north of France, but certainly doesn’t get it all. It’s a terrific sound, after the fashion of so many French Gothic sounds, with both outstanding musicians and a first rate semi operatic vocals provided by the lovely blond vocalist, Marieke. This is their first full length CD, and it’s a complete product, over 60 minutes in length with some solid Gothic oriented metal, just what you expect from the French these days. And, to top it off, there’s a nude woman on the front of the CD cover. Who says there’s no sex in Gothic metal?

I was able to interact with Marieke, there were some questions that just needed answering. The first was, what the hell does Heonia mean? Not that my French is all that good, but this was a new one on me. The answer was more than a little interesting. Seems Marieke was a Finance major at University, and she was studying topics related to the euro as the band was in its infancy and looking for a name. One of the topics related to that major was the Euro Overnight Index Average. Better known as EONIA. Well, add an H and you get the picture. Not exactly a Gothic concept but it works here.

I also asked about the CD title, it being a little on the esoteric side. Her response, "We wanted an opposition between darkness and beauty. In our lyrics, our characters are often scared physically as well as mentally but a kind of beauty can be felt behind all the darkness we write. The title fits exactly this feeling we think." We’ll get into the lyrics shortly, this explanation will make more sense then, it actually works.

Several members of the 5-person group are listed as having classical musical training. This is clearly evident in this production. There are strong keys as well as some classically oriented guitar rhythms. Marieke, although trained as a classical musician on the clarinet, does present a classical vocal on most numbers. The metal is, however, never far away. The drums are crunching; the base develops a signature bottom sound over which the rest of the music resides. And it is this juxtaposition, the classical over the solid metal that is at the base of the Heonia sound. Sometimes, the metal takes the forefront; sometimes it is the more classical. And then, at times they all appear at the same time, as is the case with the second selection Requiem For the Night, a truly dark composition that brings it all together, the classical, the metal, the near operatic, and some truly solid death metal vocals from keyboardist Damien. . . and isn’t that a great name for a death metal vocalist.

Although there are only 11 tracks on this production, most are all pretty much in the "well developed" category. No short shifts here, we get a solid composition each time out, with multiple sections that take a different focus as the song progresses. And this may be the true genius of the effort; we have some really strong musical writing here, supported by equally strong musical performances. And, of course, the lyrics don’t disappoint, they are as dark as the music and, although they may be difficult to understand on the CD, they take us to truly dark dimensions of the human experience. Marieke suggested that the lyrical development is not intended in any particular direction, that it evolves out of an impression of what the instrumental music suggests. Well, if that’s the case, these guys are spending a lot of time in the darkness. But, both the music and the lyrics are well developed and nicely presented.

You get some pretty good variety in this production, there are the obvious metal sounding tracks, and they have enough individuality to differentiate nicely utilizing a number of techniques. However, there are other styles and they are equally strong and demonstrate a strong capability to provide a multiplicity of sounds. Certainly one of the most interesting is Awakening which is a short instrumental selection with no vocal line. It’s largely carried by the keyboards with sounds that approximate other instruments. The passage is dark, as are pretty much all the selections on this CD. And it does a fine job of leading to the following selection, Despair. The two tracks almost blend together, with the second one picking up the vocals.

However, the reining direction on this CD is metal, rather pronounced metal, not all of it falling into the progressive domain or in any other single category. There is the symphonic, lots of it, there are great guitars, lead, rhythm and base, and there are both male and female vocals. But the variance in technique is something that makes the music more interesting than some others. Those vocals are quite good but not the best you’ll ever hear. And, they are not typically presented accent free, although once you know what’s being said, you can start to follow. So, it’s a combination of things that makes the music work. And, clearly, the message, and the lyrics, are a high point of the presentation. .. once you start to understand them.

The CD starts out with a symphonic Gothic direction; a hard direction that leads to the vocals over a pounding guitar. That lead guitar is a signature sound that flows through most of the songs on the CD, but, if you listen closely, you start to get the message. We start with the female vocalist:

This plea is answered by the death vocalist:

The dialog is presented over a pounding metal format, it sears the soul, it takes us to a region where the relevant becomes questionable, where mortality is just a symbol. And this escape into the realms of darkness continues with each new selection. You can choose which satisfies you more, you can go where the darkness takes you.

Winsome Scar provides a number of selections that could be considered epic; the band is not averse to the extended commentary. The best of these utilize the dialog between the female vocalist and the male death metal. And they involve significant conversations between the two, often with a significant level of symbolic representation. Mirror of Life is one of these. It begins, as do many of the selections here, with a softer direction, a subdued keyboard and a soft guitar. We get a dreamy quality, one that suggests a hypnotic reality. And, it’s quite attractive, leading to the vocals which are, at first, as subdued as the instrumental entity. However, the softness doesn’t last long, the guitars begin to pound, the drums begin to crunch, our lovely vocalist begins a plaintive cry:

The death vocal responds and begins the dialog:

voix masculine: Angel lost in the night
Am I dreaming?
voix masculine: Accept who you are
Will I awake?
voix masculine: And love around you
And live again this past
voix masculine: Or stay forever in oblivion

Heonia has provided another French Gothic sound that is deserving of a solid listen. The music is first rate, the vocal more than adequate, the lyrics as strong as any Gothic selection in recent memory. If this is your type of music, you won’t be disappointed.

Check their MySpace here