(written by Islander)
Almost six years after their previous album Vegvísir (November 2019), the Spanish doom metal band Hela have created a new album, A Reign To Conquer, that will be released on February 27th by Ardua Music and Tormo Records. Those six years were of course tremendously eventful in the life of the world (and tremendously disruptive), and Hela encountered their own internal challenges which delayed the completion of their newest work. But sometimes the struggle to overcome challenge leads to triumphs that smooth sailing never would have produced, and that’s true of A Reign To Conquer.
To be sure, as the labels rightly describe, Hela’s new album is still a voyage “through realms of shadow and sorrow” — a voyage that in some important respects will be familiar to fans of their preceding albums. But other changes will be noticeable. Among them is the appearance of Hela’s new vocalist, Raquel Navarro, and we should begin with her contributions as we start introducing our premiere stream of the new full-length today.
Raquel sings throughout these six songs, and yes, that means the album is an exception to our site’s only half-serious name — a very well-earned exception. Her singing isn’t monochromatic, but instead vibrantly expressive of ranging emotional states, both complementing and contrasting with the impact of the music that surrounds her.
This becomes apparent immediately, in the album’s staggering opening song “Vessel to Nowhere” — which also introduces listeners to the immensity and intensity of Hela’s instrumental power as manifested on the new record. There, the guitars dissonantly ring and sear, creating a disconcerting atmosphere of agony and despair, and the music also generates sweeping cascades of haunting magnificence above earth-shaking low-end blows.
When Raquel’s voice enters the scene, after a few baritone spoken words, she starts low and soars high, her voice fluid and spine-tingling, and it reaches even greater heights in tandem with a feverishly flickering lead guitar. But the music also gently rings and glistens, and with that she contributes her somber speaking voice.
The song flows like tides. It swells to panoramic expanses, pierced by a wailing guitar solo, and by the soulful yearning of the singing as well, which itself swells to astonishing heights; and it subsides into phases of beautiful, dreamlike contemplation.
In the following songs, the vocals remain a key feature. They change, and so does the music, changing in ways which make clear that Hela don’t feel any compulsion to work within established doom metal fencing.
And so “The Infinite Tower” is bright and bouncing, ethereal and captivating, with clean guitar lines that quickly mesmerize and then dreamily take flight, and with vocals, blazing riffage, and spiraling solos that send the song’s emotional intensity even further into the stratosphere — a song that’s far away from doom conventions (we even hear hints of New Wave and post-punk), even though it’s well-laced with melancholy as well as sounds of striving and wonder.
Those first two songs both ebb and flow, but in very different ways, and together they demonstrate that the album isn’t going to follow a straight and narrow course as it unfolds its musical narrative.
The balance of the songs have a similar “tidal” songwriting construction, carrying listeners downward into experiences of wistful contemplation, painful abandonment, or the noticing of sublime beauty, but also rising up to create vast vistas of humbling magnificence, distressing turbulence, and heart-bursting passion (speaking of which, don’t miss the near-screaming, heart-stopping crescendos of the vocals in “Crystal Bridge“).
It’s in those most expansive phases that Hela draw together their most elaborate instrumental layers, some harsh and some crystalline, some searing or overpowering and some irresistibly seductive. Even in those most head-spinning and captivating heights, however, you can’t overlook the visceral power and nuanced counterpoints provided by the rhythm section (you can feel the bass in your bones and the drums on your spine at almost all times), or the tremendously evocative impact of the melodic soloing.
And again, it’s worth emphasizing that Hela aren’t hidebound by familiar doom tropes. They go where the spirit moves them. They clearly know how to lower the boom — to crash and to crush — but both the vocals and some of the music within “Emerald Mirror” brings to mind variants of sultry jazz noir, and other elements of that song are suggestive of psychedelia and prog as well (that one song might also be the album’s most comprehensive expression of Raquel Navarro’s variable vocals, in both style and range), while “Architects of Disorder” ultimately towers with dark symphonic power, and “Nomad” provides a conclusion that’s both cataclysmic and deeply haunting.
Each of the six songs truly does present its own journey, bringing together a multitude of facets that evolve in powerfully mood-altering ways. The album as a whole is one that’s easy to sink into deeply and then to be carried far away, familiar in its humanity yet a great leap away from the mundanities of daily existence.
So please listen now, but stay with us for an extensive statement by Hela about the album which follows the full stream (and pre-order links):
STATEMENT BY HELA
After almost six years since our previous work Vegvísir (November 2019), we can finally present A Reign To Conquer, an album that has demanded time, patience, endurance, and resilience. The pandemic, Julián’s move away from the city where the band is based (Elche, Spain), and the recent parenthood of two of our members inevitably delayed the creation of this new chapter. The process speaks for itself: the album was recorded in 2023 at Red Records Studio, mixed by Julián throughout 2024, and mastered by Dan Swanö in 2025. A long journey, yes, but one that has been meticulous and carefully crafted in every detail.
A Reign To Conquer is a manifesto against the ephemeral, an album that rejects trends and stands firmly on its own identity. It continues the path begun with Vegvísir, but with a sound that is heavier, more metal-oriented, and less fragile than its predecessor, without losing the essence we have aimed to express since our early days with Broken Cross: dense, heavy music loaded with atmosphere, where a melodic, melancholic, and emotional female voice flows in contrast, bringing light into the sonic darkness. This contrast is a fundamental part of the band’s personality, closely tied to our name itself: the duality of the goddess Hela, beautiful and demonic at the same time, like the human being, capable of the best and the worst.
The lyrics explore solitude, mental chaos, and the search for redemption. It is an album for those who understand that darkness can also be beautiful. With Raquel’s arrival in the band, we can finally bring these songs to the stage, along with tracks from previous works (“Death May Die” or “Vegvísir”) that had never been performed live, something we once believed impossible.
We hope you enjoy this cathartic journey as much as we did creating it. Thank you.
HELA is:
Raquel Navarro · Vocals
Julián Velasco · Guitars, fx
Tano Giménez · Bass
Miguel Fernández · Drums
Adorned, as always, by the evocative imagery of Deadsign, A Reign To Conquer will be released by Ardua Music on CD digipak and digital formats and by Tormo Records on limited edition vinyl on February 27th. It is recommended for fans of The Gathering, The 3rd And The Mortal, Inborn Suffering, and Katatonia.
PRE-ORDER:
https://arduamusic.bandcamp.com/album/a-reign-to-conquer
https://www.arduamusic.com
https://www.tormorecords.com/
HELA:
https://www.helaband.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Helaband/