Heathen-The evolution of chaos
Mascot
2010
Being the thrash metal dinosaur that I am I have been a fan of this band since their 1987 debut "Breaking the silence". The galloping, tightly spun riffs and thundering rhythm section of that album had me hooked right away. Their sound very much fit the mold of the "Bay area sound" of the time along with the likes of Exodus, Testament, Death Angel and others. Heathen's debut wasn't exactly a classic, but it showed definite potential. Unfortunately it was a long four years before they followed it up with "Victims of deception". It was a fine album, but truthfully it came as thrash was starting to wind down and other offshoots like death metal were rising instead. Heathen broke up and didn't reform until almost ten years ago with a largely original line-up. Now we get their second album since reforming. It begins with an intro called uh, yeah "Intro". After that we get into a few tracks that immediately sound like Heathen's early material only with even more guitar flourishes tossed in. After that the next few tracks few tracks remind me of a cross between And justice for all era Metallica and Master of puppets era Metallica. The album as a whole was going along steadily until about 3/4 of the way through when they hit a song or two where they slow down. I am not against a chance in pace if they are doing enough to make the songs worthwhile. Honestly they do not seem as comfortable with the slower or mid-paced songs and they do with the go for broke thrashers. They have the fast songs down as good as any veteran act going today and better than most retro-thrash acts. The biggest problem with me is that other than a few tracks I don't feel that the album as a whole does anything to further define this band. Perhaps that wasn't an intention on Heathen's part this time and it doesn't detract from this being another fine album. However I think that the "The evolution of chaos" started out being nearly great, but by the end of the album they had lost some of their power and it turned into a good album.
2010
Being the thrash metal dinosaur that I am I have been a fan of this band since their 1987 debut "Breaking the silence". The galloping, tightly spun riffs and thundering rhythm section of that album had me hooked right away. Their sound very much fit the mold of the "Bay area sound" of the time along with the likes of Exodus, Testament, Death Angel and others. Heathen's debut wasn't exactly a classic, but it showed definite potential. Unfortunately it was a long four years before they followed it up with "Victims of deception". It was a fine album, but truthfully it came as thrash was starting to wind down and other offshoots like death metal were rising instead. Heathen broke up and didn't reform until almost ten years ago with a largely original line-up. Now we get their second album since reforming. It begins with an intro called uh, yeah "Intro". After that we get into a few tracks that immediately sound like Heathen's early material only with even more guitar flourishes tossed in. After that the next few tracks few tracks remind me of a cross between And justice for all era Metallica and Master of puppets era Metallica. The album as a whole was going along steadily until about 3/4 of the way through when they hit a song or two where they slow down. I am not against a chance in pace if they are doing enough to make the songs worthwhile. Honestly they do not seem as comfortable with the slower or mid-paced songs and they do with the go for broke thrashers. They have the fast songs down as good as any veteran act going today and better than most retro-thrash acts. The biggest problem with me is that other than a few tracks I don't feel that the album as a whole does anything to further define this band. Perhaps that wasn't an intention on Heathen's part this time and it doesn't detract from this being another fine album. However I think that the "The evolution of chaos" started out being nearly great, but by the end of the album they had lost some of their power and it turned into a good album.
posted by Metal Mark at
6:16 AM
3 Comments:
Hi Mark: It's been a while since I last blogged, but I'm wanting to get back into the whole thing again. I've been building up some recent posts and wanted to invite you to take a look to reintroduce you to my site.
Thanks,
Theo
http://metal-mixtape.blogspot.com/
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Heathen was one of those "under the radar" Thrash Bands that I bought into back in the day. This is a good review, I have not heard this Heathen album, now I know what to expect.
I hear your opinion... I always love my Thrash Metal to be non-stop and blistering. Regardless of the Thrash Band I listen to, any slow songs HAVE to be memorable enough to be put into the mix.
I can always count on Exodus to deliver the non-stop Thrash fury... just as an example.
Stone
I simply adore Breaking the Silence.
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