HÉR return with “Going Down”, a compact, rhythm-driven track taken from their newly released debut album Monochrome. The track distills movement into sound, favoring pulse and repetition over narrative, and framing descent not as collapse, but as passage toward resolve and freedom.
As vocalist and lyricist Maciej Świniarski explains, “This song is about persistently fighting to become a better version of oneself. It follows a path of digging deeper and deeper, reaching the core of inner darkness in order to break free and evolve.”
Built on earthy percussion and a grounded, forward-moving groove, “Going Down” advances with deliberate economy. Drums and low-register instruments interlock into a muscular cadence, while voices operate as percussive forces, repeating the “yo ho” refrain with ritual insistence. Texture, weight, and momentum carry the emotional charge, lending the song a physical, processional quality where each repetition reinforces endurance and shared intent.
Lyrically minimal, the chant reduces language to breath and rhythm, allowing meaning to emerge through repetition. Within the wider arc of Monochrome, “Going Down” marks a point of kinetic release, counterbalancing the album’s contemplative passages with raw, communal motion. It embodies the record’s central tension between stillness and force, grounding introspection in effort, movement, and collective drive.
The track also holds a particular place within the album’s narrative. Violinist and co-founder Tomasz Chyła notes, “It was a long road to finally bring this album into the light, so releasing it now feels like a huge joy and relief for all of us. It makes it even more special that the new single and video are for the last track written specifically for this album. It truly closes the journey in the way we always hoped it would.”
Monochrome is out now via Season of Mist. Order & stream here: https://orcd.co/hermonochrome
Tracklist:
1. Chant (10:47)
2. Needles and Bark (4:57)
3. Going Down (4:19)
4. Patience in Observation (3:02)
5. Slipknot (6:24)
6. Praise the Day (6:08)
7. Farewell (6:32)
Full runtime: 42:11
“Hér” in Icelandic means „here”. It is a very clear calling from the band to the audience: be here, experience, be inspired, it is happening now, and it is the essence of participating in our artistic expression. The bad was formed in Gdańsk, northern Poland. Five independent, strong musical personalities met “here”—in a specific place and time—to create communitas that are both unique and harmonious.
The music they propose carries the listener to 11th-century Old Norse wisdom poetry. The first inspiration for this artistic meeting were the poems of the Poetic Edda. Hér reveals wild, root-like, undiscovered musical spaces, the clash of worlds, and a glimpse of the otherworld. It uses raw means of expression and sounds, as raw as the North itself: trembling throat singing, increasing trance-like rhythm, gliding over the violin strings like over an ice surface. We start here: Iceland, the beginning of Europe. It is a musical meditation on a place, growing out of specific soil, reaching to the roots of Norse mythology but not stopping there. It is not only the wisdom of the Vikings, Odin’s recommendations for those who stand at the gates of Valhalla. The threshold of the otherworld leads further to universal, human, fundamental experiences.
By exploring the human nature described in Norse mythology, the musicians make a deep insight into the emotions embedded in its verses. They bring out the dark beauty of the North and its extremes: fire and ice, violence and tenderness, bravery and care, the brutality of war and the solace that peace brings, struggle and feast, the milky sweetness of honey and the salty tang of blood, love and hatred, birth and death, beginning and end, terror and awe…
Sestu hérna, sit here… sit here and listen, sit here and grow, sit here and drift away.
Line-up:
Maciej Świniarski — Vocal, Percussion
Tomasz Chyła — Vocal, Violin, Synth Percussion
Piotr Chęcki — Saxophone, Percussion
Tomasz Sadecki — Bass Guitar, Synth, Percussion
Sławek Koryzno — Drums, Percussion
Production Credits:
Recorded at Monochrom Studio, Gniewoszów, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland.
Produced & Engineered by Ignacy Gruszecki.
Mixed & Mastered by Marcin Bors at Fonoplastykon, Wrocław, Poland.
Guest Musicians:
Magdalena Kuraś „Freya”
Cover Art:
Mary Zaleska
Photography:
Daria Szczygieł (https://dariaszczygiel.com/)
Follow HÉR:
Bandcamp: https://hersom.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/herbandofficialprofile/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/her.bandofficial/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4yHViIb0eCl4eVMFcVnzm5
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/artist/h%C3%A9r/1751778615
Click image to watch the video
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