HKSPK - Heimkehr (EP, 2026)
By Flork!
Some records arrive with unfortunate timing while others seem to acquire an entirely different atmosphere because of it. As I sit in my corner office of the offices of JDØS and look out at the skyline of Bratislava, I recall that it is September 11, 2026, the 25th anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, and it is impossible for me to listen to Heimkehr today without that date hanging over the experience. And while there is no reason to assume the date was chosen to evoke the attacks, HKSPK‘s music has an unsettling ability to bring back images I remember seeing on the news that day: smoke rising above Manhattan, buildings collapsing, streets filled with people running, and the bewildering experience of watching something horrific unfold live on television. But the release date of Heimkehr is likely more coincidental, as the album‘s lyrical terrain draws on themes of war, loss, friendship (also the demise of friendship), revenge, despair, memory, and certainly mental exhaustion (this one sums up the album best).
Coming from the Northern German state of Brandenburg, HKSPK, or Hello Kitti Scum Porn Killer, the trio formed in 2023, and their particular collision of Black and Death Metal, Doom, melody, and punk directness provides an unlikely, yet fitting soundtrack for those memories. The title Heimkehr, which means „homecoming” or „the return home”, provides the album its emotional centre. To be clear, this is not a „prodigal son“ type of journey back to familiar surroundings, but rather a return of someone who has been altered and slightly destroyed by what they have experienced. Tracks like Torture, Kill the Weak, and Rot in Despair make their intentions clear enough, yet the album is considerably more interesting than its blunt titles might suggest. There is a human thread underneath the aggression, especially in the themes of memory, loss, and also seeking revenge. The band leaves room for the absurdity of the world around them as well, preventing the album from becoming one long exercise in miserable seriousness. For example, Sonnenjaeger and Rain in the Face strengthen the emotional palette, while the title track ultimately brings the album‘s ideas of return and aftermath into focus. And so, instead of functioning as a conventional concept album, Heimkehr is undoubtedly a collection of memories and stories, even impressions that have all been filtered through the band‘s worldview. The result is the description of an existence fragmented in various places, although that fragmentation is certainly forgiven. Memories rarely appear in neat, chronological order.
And the music? The individual tracks reveal just how much ground HKSPK cover in such a short space. Prelude is an ominous introduction, creating an atmosphere before the album properly erupts. It feels less like a conventional song than the opening of a dark narrative, presenting the path to the listener and inviting them to take the intial step. Torture then delivers the first real assault: it is fast, hostile, and direct, with the kind of raw vocal attack that makes the song feel genuinely uncomfortable rather than theatrically brutal. Tracks like White Secretions or Sonnenjaeger (Sun Hunter) continue that aggression while demonstrating the band‘s heavier Death Metal side. Their blunt force is balanced by enough rhythmic variation to keep things moving at a heavy pace. Sonnenjaeger is more intriguing still, since it shifts the mood and allows the band‘s German-language material to add another dimension to the album (although I can’t really tell the difference due to the raunchiness of the vocals, but I’m sure demons and other evil spirits aren’t limited to screaming in English). But I really liked this track, as well as Kill the Weak, which is perhaps the album‘s most immediate punk-inflected moment, because of its brevity and confrontational directness that make it difficult to not respond physically. All of these tracks convince me that HKSPK are at their best when they stop worrying about genre boundaries. Take for example Heimkehr, the six-minute title track and emotional destination of the record. I get the impression that the music has finally arrived at the place suggested by its title, although there is really nothing comforting about the journey‘s end. The track gradually accumulates weight, melody, and atmosphere, bringing together the themes of memory, loss, friendship, and the consequences of violence. Even the closing moments feel more like resignation rather than resolution. But this kind of progression is one of the album‘s strongest qualities. Black Metal supplies the coldness, Death Metal the muscle, Doom the sense of collapse, and punk the directness. The production at Room13 also leaves enough roughness intact to preserve HKSPK‘s underground identity. Written and produced entirely by the band, Heimkehr sounds self-contained and unpolished in precisely the right places. At roughly 25 minutes, it also knows when to stop.
And Flork‘s prognosis? Listening to Heimkehr on September 11th inevitably colours the experience for me, since there are moments when the combination of distorted guitars and an increasingly ominous atmosphere bring those old television images back with uncomfortable clarity. But to be honest, the album is not just a soundtrack to catastrophe, but instead, its real subject focuses on aftermath: what people carry with them, the things they remember, what they lose and whether returning home can ever mean returning to who they were. The closing title track gives that idea a fittingly unresolved conclusion. On an anniversary already filled with memories of smoke, fire, loss and bewilderment, Heimkehr makes for an unexpectedly powerful companion. It is a short, bruising journey and, appropriately enough, one that leaves me wanting to take the trip again.
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