Herakleion: The New Orleans Metal Band Forging a Fierce New Sound

Justin Hammer

Oct 28, 2024

Welcome to the Necroverse

Herakleion, a heavy-hitting trio from New Orleans, LA, comprises members Speed Wilson, Christian Woerner, and Apollo Xydias. Formed in 2021, their journey from the southern Louisiana metal scene to the national and international spotlight, supporting legendary New Orleans death metal pioneers Goatwhore on their latest North American Venomous Evocation Tour, is a testament to their dedication and talent. They have also embarked on their own tours, spreading their unique sound to various states nationwide. This band is definitely on the rise, so take note.

Herakleion at Feed N Seed in Lafayette, Louisiana for Mixed Alternative Magazine — Credit: Justin Hammer

Their latest achievement is the brand-new release of their second EP, Necroverse in September 2024. After two years of writing and planning, they embarked on a collaborative journey with producer Pete DeBoer at Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillo, TX, to assemble this masterpiece, and this album is one that will resonate with you if you are a true lover of metal. The album crafts a dark and immersive atmosphere with distorted guitars, pounding percussion, and other textures to evoke a sense of dystopian grandeur. They also partnered with the talented metal imagery artist Noah Meihoff for the album artwork, adding a visual layer to the story told in the music.

With numerous releases to their credit since their inception, I was able to sit down with the guys in Herakleion recently to get some insight into their process when creating their newest effort, Necroverse, as well as some band history, and how touring is going. Take a moment to learn more, and then be sure to stream Necroverse today.

MaM: Thanks for speaking with us today. How did you all come up with the name Heraklion?

Apollo: I was sitting on the couch with my roommate. It was before I joined the band, but sometimes, we would get off work, scroll through YouTube videos, and pass the time instead of watching a TV show. I saw a documentary on the ancient city of Herakleion and was interested in the story. They had only recently discovered it about 30 years ago. I just thought it was cool that, you know, there’s the same city from which they thought the story of Atlantis came. When running band names, we didn’t want those classic name generator names, an adjective, a noun type deal, or two and three-word names. We wanted one punchy word that hadn’t been said before, and it seemed like it just clicked in my brain. I was like, “Hey, why don’t we just go with this?” we’ve been running with it ever since.

Herakleion for Mixed Alternative Magazine — Credit: Justin Hammer

MaM: How did y’all create the new album, Necroverse? Give us a few details.

Herakleion: Necroverse was meant to be a purely conceptual album. Each song has a story about crossing from the mortal plane into the realm of the dead. So that’s pretty much the theme for every song and every story within each song. We wanted it to be a bit more varied in tempos and writing than the first EP, being its own thing. It’s a bit more mid-tempo, and we got a lot more creative with the riffs and the flow of every song. It was an enjoyable writing process; it was certainly different, and the product is different; it’s cool.

MaM: How would you all say it differed from the first EP?

Herakleion: The production quality is much higher than that of the previous efforts. The thing about it is it’s not all that different from when we recorded Curse of Eternity because we did everything for that record basically like we were recording analog, even though it’s technically a digital recording. Still, we did all the recording live off the floor. There are no punch-ins or anything like that. At this point, it’s kind of just how we know how to do it: to get that good take right off the floor and do it live. We took what we got from Curse of Eternity and ramped up on the production, went to the excellent studio, got the producer we wanted, and just took it to the next level from what we were already doing. Writing was a lot more thought-out, too, because the first album we made before we even played a show so that we would have some stuff to play. It came together over a few months, but we had been working on the new release for over a year, so it’s much more refined and honed than the first one.

MaM: Who did the recording and production for the new album?

Herakleion: Pete Deboer from Denver. We went to a studio in Tornillo, TX, called Sonic Ranch. It was an incredible experience.

MaM: I love the album artwork. Who came up with that?

Herakleion: Noah Meihoff. Noah did an amazing job. We found him through some artwork he did for this horror magazine cover, and up until that point, we didn’t see anything we felt fit the record's theme. We knew we needed this guy to do it as soon as we saw his work. We saw his process and its uniqueness, which fit the analog feel of the whole record we were going for. We talked to him about the record's themes, and he came up with a concept for the cover, which came together nicely. There are a lot of subtle details in that album artwork as well that if you’re looking at it, you can find, you know, hidden little things in there that even had to be pointed out to me even after I had seen it for a month or so I like that it has that dimension and those layers to it. He just really knocked it out of the park, and we couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

MaM: What was it like getting out on the road with the legendary Goatwhore?

Herakleion: We know those guys well, so it’s like going out on the road with some good buddies, but we all stayed professional despite our friendship status. It was just a lot of fun, you know. The biggest takeaway from touring, whether it’s our run with Goatwhore or on our own, especially from those guys, is to learn how to be 100% efficient, professional, cool to everybody, and don’t go and screw around when you’re on the road, you’re there for a reason. The wheels don’t take long to come off track. You must adapt and keep your head on a swivel. You know, you could pop a tire, or something could break at a show, or leave a cable at a venue. You take something different away from every show you play, and when you tour with guys like Goatwhore that have been doing it for twenty-plus years, I mean, you can get the “Hey, don’t do this!” before you make that mistake, so you learn a lot from taking to those guys.

You know the most when it’s the end of the night, and you’re putting away each other’s stuff in each other’s trailers and sharing stories, asking questions, and if you're paying attention, you can take those notes and don’t forget them if it’s something you want to do for a long time. We are lucky to have friends in the business who have been doing it for a while and can pass the knowledge along to us.

MaM: Do you guys have any up-and-coming touring plans?

Herakleion: We have a mid-west run planned for November, where we will visit Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago, Cleveland, Dayton, Louisville, and New Orleans. Then, we are planning a Texas run in December. That’s pretty much it for the year, but next year will be pretty much nonstop on the road, either on our own or with other bands.

Fall 2024 Tour Schedule Herakleion — Catch Herakleion on tour this fall!

Check Herakleion's Instagram and Facebook pages for all upcoming tour dates and information about their current activities.

To purchase their new EP Necroverse on vinyl, cassette, or CD, along with all their other merchandise, follow the link tree in the bio on their Instagram page.

Necroverse is out NOW on all streaming services.