By: Anders

Posted: Jul 20, 2005

There have been a lot of noise surrounding this German deathcore band, and now with the deal with Century Media and their debut album for that label released, the end of the road should be far away. The bits and pieces I had heard before this album with the band, have not impressed me that much. Decent hardcore driven melodic death metal, that is how I remember Heaven Shall Burn from previous encounters.

The first tones, after the rather Braveheart inspired intro leaves the speakers, ignites the first thoughts to resound. Heavy death metal riffs make the base of the music, often with a thrashy scent to them. On top of that, one melodic lead after the other, I somehow can't stop thinking At The Gates mixed with newer In Flames. The drumming is okay, not that breathtaking. There are some good rhythms and beats, and some nice drum breaks. The vocal is a screamed growl, filled with anger and frustration, but once in a while without much passion. Or that is how it seems, some of the energy and emotional outbursts, can have disappeared somewhere in the process after the recording.

The overall sound does also seem a bit stale at times. The production is not as hardhitting and direct as expected. That is quite a shame, I miss some sharpness and teeth in the production. It fits the calm melodies great, but what about all the aggressive parts, they need a sharper production to work as intended.

At first the music and compositions on this album seems okay and interesting, though after the first half of the album. One starts to get bored, much of the material on here smells the same and some have been heard too much in the past. The quite dull and stale production doesn't help it much either. There are some great ideas, and if my memory doesn't serve me wrong, the bands earlier material seemed more interesting and not as easy accessible as this.

Rating: 5/10

Print