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Heaven Shall Burn - Antigone (2004 - Century Media)

Antigone

The borders between genres within metal are blurry at best, and this is the case with Germany's Heaven Shall Burn. You'd expect a seething evil black metal record with a name like that, but what we do get is a belnd of thrash/death/hardcore that is slightly melodic in a Gothamburg/Swedish way.
The album lures you in with a sombre piano intro, and then the blistering 'The Weapon They Fear' kicks in. Caliban come to mind, and funnily enough, Heaven Shall Burn did a split with these fellow countrymen about 4 years ago, so perhaps they picked up a few tricks on the way? Also there are other influences scattered here and there, including At The Gates and Earth Crisis. My short summary of this music would have to be In Flames on steroids. This is definitley what In Flames should sound like now.
Heaven Shall Burn throw up some meaty, savage riffs that satisfy and a pain-tortured screaming attack all driven home by some impressive percussion. Their 'new' sound may put some people off at first, but i hope the shere intensity and monstrosity of some of their break-neck riffs such as the opener on 'The Only Truth', will sway the most hardened of metalheads.
I was astonished to hear a blatant rip-off at the beginning 'Numbing The Pain'. It opens with the loading of a gun, exactly the same as 'Suicide Nation' by A.T.G., opening with a similar gun sound sampled from 'Reservoir Dogs'. Despite this 'Numbing The Pain' which is a powerful, depressing track is a good strong song. Another thing that is noticeable is the album is quite samey, good but repetitive. You could quite easily chop up some of the songs into sections and mix and match them.
Overall, i think their musicmanship will void these faults and most fans of extreme metal should enjoy this, but if you are heavily into things like raw crusty grind or old-school scratchy black metal then you might want to give it a miss.
Reviewed By - hail erebus

Slay The Masses Score...7.5/10

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