Bölzer album review – Hero

Cult standard bearers Bölzer broaden their horizons with new album

Bölzer album cover

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

Bölzer guitarist/vocalist Okoi ‘KzR’ Jones and drummer Fabian ‘HzR’ Wyrsch are a duo capable of doing more on drums and a 10-string guitar than most bands can with five members. Singular of vision, theirs is a profound creative partnership built upon firm foundations of friendship.

For those electrified by 2013’s Aura and 2014’s Soma EPs, and there were many, the wait for a promised full-length has been agonising, yet when preview track I AM III emerged recently, it wasn’t quite what people were expecting. Gone was the oppressive darkness, the rough-hewn edges, replaced with a wider, liberated sound, the riffs still progressively undulating, hungry and sharp, but with their keening edge gilded.

It’s a theme that continues throughout Bölzer’s bold stride forwards, Hero taking the ground laid on the two EPs and building further upon their conceptual dualities: human nature in the face of mythological enormity; a tranformation of the flaws of body and soul; and a thirst for seeking knowledge of the unknown forces that evade us. Such inner and outer conflicts still resonate with tangible sonic force, but with a depth and maturity befitting the record’s longer runtime, the fragile whistling opening refrain of Urdr calling the reverent cataclysm of The Archer down upon it, guitars assaulting in textured waves as HzR’s drums rumble like thunder, harbingers of the thunderbolts yet to strike. The title track elevates the ravening pace and fury yet higher, capturing an atmosphere of imperious defiance. KzR’s vocals alternate between fervent rants, anguished howls and baleful wails, melodic counterpoints to the ever-shifting battle for supremacy between groove and dissonance on tracks like Spiritual Athleticism that makes Hero so compelling. Phosphor is perhaps the ultimate example, majestic pace and power combining with an infectious, stabbing groove beneath transcendent leads, pummelling, pounding, taking your breath away, lifting your gaze above blinding, sunlit thunderclouds.

There’s beauty and grace in Bölzer’s rapture, the likes of which are a rare occurrence: a singular purity of expression that takes everything great about black metal and bends it to their unique will, a bearing of a conflicted soul beneath burning skies, compelling all to fall under its exultant sway.

Latest in
Queen posing for a photograph in 1978
"Freddie’s ideas were off the wall and cheeky and different, and we tended to encourage them, but sometimes they were not brilliant.” Queen's Brian May reveals one of Freddie Mercury's grand ideas that got vetoed by the rest of the band
Mogwai
“The concept of cool and uncool is completely gone, which is good and bad… people are unashamedly listening to Rick Astley. You’ve got to draw a line somewhere!” Mogwai and the making of prog-curious album The Bad Fire
Adrian Smith performing with Iron Maiden in 2024
Adrian Smith names his favourite Iron Maiden song, even though it’s “awkward” to play
Robert Smith, Lauren Mayberry, Bono
How your purchase of albums by The Cure, U2, Chvrches and more on Record Store Day can help benefit children living in war zones worldwide
Cradle Of Filth performing in 2021 and Ed Sheeran in 2024
Cradle Of Filth’s singer claims Ed Sheeran tried to turn a Toys R Us into a live music venue
The Beatles in 1962
"The quality is unreal. How is this even possible to have?" Record shop owner finds 1962 Beatles' audition tape that a British label famously decided wasn't good enough to earn Lennon and McCartney's band a record deal
Latest in Review
/news/the-darkness-i-hate-myself
"When the storm clouds clear, the band’s innate pop sensibilities shine as brightly as ever": In a world of bread-and-butter rock bands, The Darkness remain the toast of the town
Sex Pistols at the RAH
"Open the dance floor, you’ll never get to do it again." Forget John Lydon's bitter and boring "karaoke" jibes, with Frank Carter up front, the Sex Pistols sound like the world's greatest punk band once more
Arch Enemy posing in an alleyway
Arch Enemy promised they'd throw out the rule book for Blood Dynasty. They didn't go quite that far, but this is the boldest album of the Alissa White-Gluz era - and it kicks ass
The Darkness press shot
"Not just one of the best British rock albums of all time, but one of the best debut albums ever made": That time The Darkness added a riot of colour to a grey musical landscape
Roger Waters - The Dark Side of the Moon Redux Deluxe Box Set
“The live recording sees the piece come to life… amid the sepulchral gloom there are moments of real beauty”: Roger Waters' Super Deluxe Box Set of his Dark Side Of The Moon Redux
Cradle Of Filth Press Shot 2025
Twiddly Iron Maiden harmonies, thrash riffs, horror, rapping (kind of) and sexy goth allure: The Screaming Of The Valkyries is peak Cradle Of Filth