Heffy’s new EP ETERNAL AFFECTION takes the crucial aspects of the artist’s work and intensifies all of them over the course of five songs. With production pulling inspiration from rap, alt, punk, and electronica, this project is a progression on the sound of his 2021 album Mortem while still preserving the feelings of his previous work. Heffy leaves behind the more guitar centered work on Mortem and leans into the electronic aspects of his music, creating a heavy pulse throughout the entirety of the project. The uncompromising production on this EP can make you miss the raw emotion in the lyrics that are thrown at you, yet underneath the energy of the production, Heffy goes through every stage of heartache throughout the runtime of this EP and allows you to process that progression alongside him.
Opening track “Hard Drugs” sets the tone for this EP. This track throws you in with no warning and immediately brings in a high energy that is present throughout the whole EP, feeling like the mania of not being able to accept change with lines like, “I can’t give you all my love” and “I can’t find myself, woke up stuck inside this hell.” You feel as though you’ve been placed in the middle of something that’s already started that you have no way of controlling. With the vocals not being at the forefront of the mix it leaves you to focus on the feeling of the delivery rather than the actual words, demanding more contemplation for the few lyrics that do pop out.
The second track and only single shared off of this project is “THE MORE U FEEL”, ramping up the energy even more while the lyrics sink deeper into a murky gloom. Heffy shifts from a denial into a reminiscence, looking back at the things he’s lost, “I can’t bring you back to my world, I’m still holding on, the nights that we spent getting high in your bed.” Heffy introduces some screams into his delivery that pair incredibly with the mood of this track. There’s a feeling of finality on this song that we didn’t hear on the opener, “It’s all in my head, my lover is dead”.
“I called off the search…i know exactly where you are” comes in with a guitar riff that the track builds around, which is stylistically the closest to something off of Mortem than any of the other tracks on this project. Moving past glorifying his memories on the last track, Heffy moves into bargaining on this one. Singing lyrics like “Maybe it’s not too late, let’s just give it one more day” and “I tried so hard don’t say our loves a lie.” The desperation and withdrawal that he’s conveying with his lyrics works in sync with the different approach on the production of this track.
“EVOCATION” is by far the most aggressive track on this collection. The production style of the first two tracks is brought back in, ramped up, and distorted. There are faster and busier synth lines throughout the very short runtime, this alongside the vocal performance gives it much more of a punk influence than the rest of the tracks. The writing style for the lyrics takes a big shift, feeling as though there is a detachment that happens with this song that wasn’t there for the previous three. Fitting with the title, Heffy is dejected and screaming out in hopes of something higher being able to take the situation away from him. “Hell is a place on earth, save us all”.
“LOVEINBLACK&WHITE” closes out the EP and offers one more request for things to return to how they once were, “I’ll let you kill me with your touch just to feel this type of love”. Though he’s gone through all of these stages of pain over the course of ETERNAL AFFECTION he’s still willing to feel the hurt again and risk the same outcome if it means another chance. The final lyrics we’re left with are “just hold on” as the synths swell and fade as the track comes to a close. You’re left in the silence with those final words echoing throughout your head and forced to ask yourself what he seems to have been questioning the entire EP: Would it be worth it to go through it all again if there was a chance things could be different?