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October 12, 2008 |
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01. Echoes (Intro)
02. The Weapon They Fear
03. The Only Truth
04. Architects Of The Apocalypse
05. Voice Of The Voiceless
06. Numbing The Pain
07. To Harvest The Storm
08. Risandi Von (Outro)
09. Bleeding To Death
10. Tree Of Freedom
11. The Dream Is Dead
12. Deyjandi Von (Outro)
13. Dislocation (Bonus Track)
14. Not My God (Bonus Track)
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I always enjoy the feeling I get upon first spinning a new disc wherein what belches forth from the speakers is nothing at all like what I was expecting to hear. When I first received a copy of HEAVEN SHALL BURN's latest offering 'Antigone', my initial impression was one of "Hmmm...German band...Stark, melancholy, black and white cover art...Must be either some sort of wanna-be CRADLE OF FILTH Goth act, or yet another Troo/Kvlt Black Metal horde. Man, if I actually end up liking this, I'll eat my hat!".
Well...Damn it all, someone pass the ketchup, 'cause 'Antigone' is neither contrived Goth, nor overwrought Black Metal. In fact, it's a surprisingly aggressive little slab o' East Coast U.S. meets frosty Swedish, AT THE GATES-style Metalcore more in line with a lot of what’s coming out Stateside these days as opposed to anything from the band's own European homeland. And for the record, I actually rather enjoyed it.
Currently signed through Century Media, HEAVEN SHALL BURN (Marcus Bischoff/vocals, Eric Bischoff/bass, Matthias Voigt/drums, Patrick Schleitzer/guitar, and Maik Weichert/guitar) originally signed to one Lifeforce Records on the strength of their 'In Battle There Is No Law' EP. Under Lifeforce, they released their debut full length 'Asunder', and in 2002 the acclaimed 'Whatever It May Take' album which caught the attention of both fans and critics alike for its then-unique-upon-Euro-shores take on blurring the lines between flat-out Melodic Death Metal and Hardcore. Obviously Century Media made a wise choice in picking the boys up as 'Antigone' takes affairs one step further with a great production job (c/o Tue Madsen at Antfarm Studios, Denmark) that really highlights the band’s penchant for crafting brutally heavy, yet catchy, hooky Metal riffs in conjunction with the street-savvy, straight-ahead double-bass attack and crushing vocal assault of Hardcore.
More noticeable to some degree than in the case of their U.S. counterparts however, is a slight stylistic lean in favour of a more purely Scandinavian sound that makes this more, again - AT THE GATES, IN FLAMES, SOILWORK - than say, SHADOWS FALL, UNEARTH, or KILLSWITCH ENGAGE. Just something subtle about the guitar tones, choice of melodies in the leadwork, certain vocal hooks...again, very subtle, yet telling influences which will ultimately I think, betray the Euro roots of the band to those more discerning listeners among us.
Either way though, this is definitely a high caliber release, and a timely one too given the ever-rising popularity of the band's chosen subgenre amongst international audiences. There are however, certain flaws that prevent me from immediately thrusting my grade into slightly higher '8' or '9' territory. The main problem with this - and for that matter, many other releases - is the same thing you'll hear me harping on time and time again in many other reviews; it's the simple fact that - as good as this all is - I can't help but shake that nagging, heard-three-quarters-of-it-all-before headache. To be fair, this probably says less about HEAVEN SHALL BURN, whose obvious talent and conviction is solid to say the very least, than it does about the fact that they are but one of literally dozens...hundreds even of acts in the swiftly growing Metalcore scene.
It ultimately comes down to the simple fact that, given I already own albums by pretty much all of the above-mentioned comparable acts, do I really need to fork out yet more coin for yet another band that sounds so much like them? Reminds me of the fate of FLOTSAM & JETSAM back in the early 90's who, in similar relation to the Bay Area Thrash scene/sound of the time were similiarly lost in the shuffle behind all of the ANTHRAX's, MEGADETH's, SLAYER's and METALLICA's. Sad but true. Bad pun, I know, but also very apt. Also, as a general rule, I’m personally of the school of thought that says 8-10 tracks at roughly 40-45 minutes is more than enough. When you start hitting the 14-15 track mark, at like, an hour or more...Man it gets to be just too much with music this extreme. Things start losing their immediacy, tracks blur together into a sonic blosh, and the magic just dies. That's a definite problem here.
Notice how I haven’t picked out any one or two tracks that really stand out for me? Exactly. As stated, I found the album as a whole to be really quite good. But as solid and catchy as it all was, I honestly can't say much about tracks 1-5 that I couldn't just as accurately say about tracks 6-10, and onwards. It was all decent enough, but I need more peaks and valleys, more changes in tempo, more... 'surprises' for lack of a better word to result in any desire to go 'Dude! Is that the new HEAVEN SHALL BURN!?! Ya gotta throw on track 3...it's just KILLER!'. That's the kind of reaction songs should garner. Not just, 'Yeah...It's all pretty good stuff.' Keep it simple and don't be afraid to edit more. Having good ideas is one thing, but trying to throw everything but the kitchen sink onto one album can weigh it down to the point where it starts to sink under the weight of its own intentions. There's always the next album to think about after all. Save some ideas for that!
In conclusion, I'll just reiterate that I do genuinely enjoy what I'm hearing on this release. A perfect background album for my next Metal party as there is a lot on here that will appeal to both European and North American-style sensibilities. Unfortunately however, my enjoyment does remain somewhat detached. The kind that makes me think 'Damn! Good band. Sounds a lot like ________'. What I should be inspired to think upon hearing a new release however is 'Damn! Great band!'. See the difference? Nevertheless, criticisms and (hopefully) constructive advice aside, these guys are a pretty solid and talented bunch indeed.
Those who live and die for the Metalcore sound are sure to enjoy what is on offer here. I have a feeling that come the next release though, HEAVEN SHALL BURN are destined to really hit their creative stride in spades, and will doubtless deliver something that will hit the Metal community over the head like a tonne of bricks. That is a release I will definitely be interested in checking out. In the meantime, I'll let you go now. I still have a few shreds of hat left to scarf down.
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