michael henss might be best known (right now) as the drummer for hellrazor and formerly dead wives. the new haven musician is revealing another side of himself (if you call it a “heele turn” you are dead to me), with pathos, a 4-song ep that dropped a couple of weeks ago. heele is a true solo project, with henss writing, performing, recording, and mastering pathos himself. that’s as “solo” as you get, and it makes pathos a really immersive experience. there’s no compromise. not competing visions. and while all of that may sound like the recipe for self-indulgence, pathos is a crowd-pleaser because henss seems to be a melody-first kind of guy. it’s melancholy, it’s layered, but it’s got hooks that will stick with you (especially “losing it all”).
with its collision of hard-rock and electronics, the best reference point for heele’s music is probably the ’90s-and-then-revived rock band failure. that band’s heavy grooves, walls of sound, and emphasis of melody make heele fellow travelers with failure. in fact, pathos sounds most like the band’s 2018 lp, in the future your body will be the furthest thing from your mind, which was recorded around the same time as pathos. what this suggests to me is not that failure is just an influence of heele, but rather that the two projects are inspired by the same kinds of favored sounds and themes. you can sing along with it, or you can turn the volume up so loud that the bass drum hits knock the air out of your lungs. or hey, why not both.
“tangent no. 1” suggests the first of a series of instrumentals. now i’m not saying that there is more heele on the horizon — i don’t have any insider information, i know as much as you do folks — but i am saying that if i wake up one morning soon and see “tangent no. 2” on bandcamp, [this will be my reaction].
the band’s website states that live shows and a full band are planned for the future. converting the studio experience of pathos to a live environment promises to be a fun idea. keep your eyes peeled for more info here or at heele’s other points of contact: bandcamp, instagram, and facebook.
