With their recently released debut album, post-progressive metal band Hei’An joined Noctiferia, Within Destruction and other Slovenian metal acts fearlessly venturing abroad. The promising new hope of the Slovenian metal scene will present the album imago live for the first time in Šiška with an expanded line-up, including the driving force of the band Mrfy. As special guests, Their Dogs Were Astronauts, an extremely popular prog/djent duo from our neighbour to the north, who have amassed millions of online streams with the help of a worldwide audience, will perform their music for us for the first time.
The album imago, a product of the inexhaustible creative mind of Matic Blagonič and his band Hei’An, which includes drummer Gaj Bostič (P-Jays), bassist Peter Smrdel (WCKD Nation) and guitarist Matevž Počič (Dethrone the Corrupted), was released in November. Guided by producer Matej Gobec (Laibach), the recently formed band masterfully fused hard and relentless metal riffs with gentle, catchy pop melodies and delivered a masterful debut, on which we also hear the vocals of Gregor Štrasbergar (Mrfy), Joe Buras (Born of Osiris), Oelke (Malorshiga) and Sara Jeremić (Noctiferia), as well as powerful orchestrations by the legendary Randy Slaugh (Devin Townsend, Architects, Sleeping With Sirens).
It is therefore not surprising that this unique joining of two opposing musical worlds has been eagerly snapped up abroad as well. In October, the band flew to Los Angeles, where they recorded a special concert version of four tracks from the album with the string quartet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the iconic EastWest Studios complex. In addition, they also signed a contract with the Extreme Music agency, which creates and licenses music for use in television, films, advertising and online media, which means that the way has been paved for Hei’An’s to be featured in Hollywood productions.
Their Dogs Were Astronauts, a progressive and djent duo of brothers from Vienna, will perform as a special guest on this occasion. Within the extended sonic range of seven- and eight-string guitars, the guys create unique, melodic instrumentals wrapped around a solid metal core. Their music places them alongside genre giants such as Periphery and TesseracT, and has also earned them praise from genre connoisseurs – Djent Mag praised their “masterfully crafted and beautiful” sound, while Medium.com celebrated their “experimental, progressive, and fresh takes on what can sometimes be a stale and repetitive sound”.
Their Dogs Were Astronauts already have a series of studio releases behind them, with which they have accumulated millions of online streams and a dedicated audience around the world. In 2023, five full-fledged albums and as many Eps will be joined by a sixth studio album, so we can also look forward to completely fresh material when they play Šiška.
Tickets on sale online and at Eventim outlets.
Organisation: Kino Šiška.
