HRAEFN

Founded in 2021, Belgian outfit HRAEFN are a compelling metal trio, covering a lot of ground: heavily influenced by heavy, stoner, as well as doom metal, they express themselves in a pretty unique music style. Call it psychedelic doom n’ roll, if you will. Think purified and iconic riffs with some progressive tendencies, matched with eerie and emotive vocals to create pieces that sound like unsettling fever dreams, psychotic episodes, prayers of the damned. But what makes the borderline heavy/doom metal of HRAEFN really stand out, is the level of musicality and the collar-grabbing quality of their work.

The second EP of HRAEFN, RESEARCH INTO INFINITY, features Terence ‘Doom Foot’ Gevaert (Carneia, Her Fault) on the drums, who joined the band late 2023 and adds some extra firepower to the trio. This new release showcases some more southern/stoner influences in Michael Sremos’ (Witch Which?, Heavy Fox) heavy metal guitar playing, which really fits Tonny van Bavel’s (Staat van Genade) clean but fierce vocals and squirming bass playing. There’s a lot to unpack in this 3-song EP, but the surprises are discomfortingly pleasant.

RESEARCH INTO INFINITY was recorded and mixed in the summer of 2024 by Frank Rotthier, who has also worked with Gnome, Psychonaut, among others. The EP was mastered by Jens from Larsson Mastering.