Brandenburg black/death metal wrecking crew HKSPK are preparing to unleash their new full-length album, Heimkehr, on 11 September 2026 โ and if you like your metal cold, vicious and utterly uninterested in behaving itself, youโll want this one on the radar.
Clocking in at roughly 25 minutes across eight tracks, Heimkehr promises a concentrated blast of raw aggression, combining the freezing atmosphere of black metal with the sheer physical heft of death metal.
No padding. No messing about. Just eight tracks designed to get in, cause structural damage and leave before anyone can work out what the hell just happened.
Lovely stuff. ๐
๐ WELCOME HOMEโฆ IF YOU DARE
Formed in Brandenburg, Germany, in 2023, HKSPK have spent the past few years steadily building their own corner of the underground.
The bandโs music, arrangements and production have been developed internally from the beginning, giving HKSPK considerable control over exactly how their particular brand of darkness reaches the listener.
Their debut album, Holy Scum, arrived in 2024, followed by the The Human Butcher EP in 2025.
Then came 2026.
HKSPK dropped the singles โTortureโ and โRot In Despairโ, opening the door to their next chapter and providing the first glimpses of what was brewing behind Heimkehr.
And judging by the description of the record, they havenโt exactly spent the intervening months writing cheerful songs about puppies and summer holidays.
๐ฅ BLACK METAL COLD MEETS DEATH METAL WEIGHT
Heimkehr connects black metal and death metal while allowing melodic, atmospheric and doom-laden ideas to crawl through the cracks.
Thereโs even an occasional punk-driven streak thrown into the mixture.
Rather than building some enormous fantasy universe around the lyrics, HKSPK pull inspiration from personal experiences, stories from their immediate surroundings and historical motifs.
Reality forms the foundation โ and then the band cranks everything up until it matches the violence and atmosphere of the music.
Thatโs a particularly intriguing approach.
Extreme metal can sometimes disappear so deeply into mythology, monsters and grand concepts that reality gets left standing outside the venue without a ticket. HKSPK appear determined to keep one boot firmly planted in the real world while twisting that reality into something darker.
๐ง โTORTUREโ AND โROT IN DESPAIRโ ALREADY OUT
Fans donโt have to wait until September to hear what HKSPK have been cooking.
Two tracks from Heimkehr are already available.
โTortureโ is a short, sharp assault lasting just 1 minute and 52 seconds, while โRot In Despairโ stretches beyond four minutes and offers another taste of the bandโs developing sound.
Between them, the singles provide an early warning of the atmosphere surrounding Heimkehr.
Consider yourselves warned, mun. ๐
๐ฟ HKSPK โ HEIMKEHR TRACKLIST
- Prelude โ 1:05
- Torture โ 1:52
- White Secretions II โ 3:03
- Sonnenjรคger โ 2:30
- Kill The Weak โ 2:48
- Rot In Despair โ 4:16
- Rain In The Face โ 3:41
- Heimkehr โ 6:06
The title track is comfortably the longest piece on the album at just over six minutes, suggesting the record could be saving some of its biggest atmospheric ambitions for the final stretch.
Everything before that looks brutally economical.
Two minutes. Three minutes. Done.
Next victim.
๐๏ธ MADE IN HOUSE
Heimkehr was recorded, mixed and mastered by HKSPK at Room13, continuing the bandโs hands-on approach to creating its music.
The albumโs cover artwork comes courtesy of Steffen Schmolke.
Keeping production within the HKSPK camp should help preserve exactly the kind of atmosphere the band wants without sanding down those deliberately rough edges.
And when youโre making raw black/death metal, sanding down the edges rather defeats the bloody point, doesnโt it?
๐ THE UNDERGROUND IS ALREADY PAYING ATTENTION
HKSPK havenโt been shouting into the abyss unnoticed either.
Ahead of the albumโs release, the band have already appeared across several international media outlets including Legacy Magazine, RAMzine, Whiskey Soda, Rock Era Magazine, Acta Infernalis, Fatal Underground and Slowly We Rot.
Thatโs a decent bit of underground momentum for a band formed only three years ago.
The live side has been developing nicely too.
HKSPK have supported the likes of Asagraum, Enisum and Waldgeflรผster, alongside appearances at M.U.R. Open Air, Godless Mountain Open Air and Summer Ends.
Theyโve also taken the headline slot for a show in Brno.
So while Heimkehr might only last around 25 minutes, thereโs already a fair bit of graft sitting behind it.
โ๏ธ HKSPK LINE-UP
Jim โ vocals and lead guitar
Leon โ rhythm guitar
Arne โ drums
Three people.
Eight tracks.
Twenty-five minutes.
Absolutely no requirement for subtlety.
Thatโs maths we can get behind. ๐ค
๐ DISCOGRAPHY
Holy Scum โ Album, 2024
The Human Butcher โ EP, 2025
โTortureโ โ Single, 2026
โRot In Despairโ โ Single, 2026
Heimkehr โ Album, 2026
๐ฟ LIMITED PHYSICAL RELEASE
Heimkehr will be released independently on 11 September 2026, with digital distribution handled through DistroKid.
For collectors who still believe music deserves to exist as something you can actually hold in your hands โ and quite right too โ HKSPK are also producing a limited physical run of just 50 CDs, available through the bandโs Bandcamp.
Fifty.
Thatโs not exactly the sort of pressing where you casually think, โIโll grab one next Christmas.โ
If this album lands with the underground the way HKSPK will be hoping, those discs could disappear sharpish.
๐ฅ RELEASE INFORMATION
Band: HKSPK
Album: Heimkehr
Release Date: 11 September 2026
Format: Digital / Limited CD
Genre: Black/Death Metal
Country: Germany
Tracks: 8
Running Time: Approx. 25 minutes
๐ค THE RIFF REPORT SAYSโฆ
There is something wonderfully refreshing about an extreme metal record that doesnโt threaten you with a 94-minute runtime and three interludes involving wind noises.
HKSPK are keeping things lean, aggressive and focused.
Eight songs.
Twenty-five minutes.
Black metal atmosphere colliding with death metal muscle, with doom, melody and punk energy lurking around the edges.
Job done.
With Holy Scum and The Human Butcher already establishing the foundations, Heimkehr represents the next step for a young German band steadily forcing its way further into the international underground.
And with only 50 physical copies being produced, the proper collectors among you might want to get those trigger fingers ready.
HKSPKโs Heimkehr arrives independently on 11 September 2026.
Turn the lights off.
Turn the volume up.
And probably apologise to the neighbours in advance.
Actually, sod it.
Theyโll learn. ๐๐ฅ๐ค
Proudly Welsh. Proudly Loud. Zero Apologies. ๐๐ค
