Deaf to Our Prayers

Heaven Shall Burn is a band I stumbled upon in my high school years, specifically ninth grade. I had just really gotten into extreme metal with bands such as In Flames, Deicide, Dimmu Borgir, and Slayer, among many others. I don't remember the specifics on how I came across HSB, but this was the first (and still only...) album by these guys I listened to. At the time, I was blown away. It's a very heavy album with an injection of some serious melody, but five and a half years ago, does this album stand the test of time? In my opinion, that is a negative. However, is this a bad album? Absolutely not.

This album basically follows a very familiar formula used by bands such as Darkest Hour and Shadows Fall. It takes melodic death metal and mixes it with influences from metalcore. The guitar riffs on this album are definitely heavy but insanely melodic at the same time. This music is extremely catchy but as we all know, catchiness is not always an asset. There are plenty of moments on this album where it sounds like the band is directly ripping off a bunch of other bands within this style of music. "Profane Believers" sounds like a carbon copy of "Colony" era In Flames to me with a metalcore style chug throughout some of the riffs. This really can be said about a lot of the tracks of the album. After this song when "Stay the Course" came on, I thought I was listening to Shadows Fall. Surprisingly enough, breakdowns are not used extensively throughout this record, unlike a lot of bands deemed metalcore. It's really not fair to label HSB, or this album anyway, as just a metalcore band. There are a few breakdowns placed sporadically around the album and plenty of chugging riffs, but HSB are definitely more of a melodic death metal band. "Counterweight", the album's intro track, is probably my favorite cut and contains some of the most melodic yet crushing guitar work out of all 11 songs. I think it should have been placed towards the middle of the album, probably after the "The Final March", but it is what it is.

Marcus Bischoff is not that impressive a vocalist in my opinion. No, he's not bad by any meaning of the word, but he seems too complacent. He really doesn't change his vocal style at all throughout the album's 50 minutes. He's constantly screaming at the same frequency without changing anything up. This isn't a horrible thing, as he is a pretty decent vocalist, but he does sound extremely monotonous. Really there isn't too much to say about his performance aside from the fact that he is energetic although average.

This definitely is not a bad release. It's not in my top melodic death metal albums of all time, but it really could have been better had the songs contained more variation and originality. I may have to look into the other albums from HSB. After all, this is the only thing I've listened to within the five and a half years I've known about the band. Interesting fact: this album was named after Marduk's "Heaven Shall Burn...When We Are Gathered" album, which for me, is a classic black metal album. I was not aware of this until a few years after discovering this band, but an interesting fact nonetheless. Check this out if you enjoy metalcore and want to hear something closer to melodic death metal. Definitely not the best album out there, but worth a listen.

But heavy isn't always the same as good...

I have to admit that I liked this album the first time I heard it, and so I did the second and even the third time! I was astonished (and a little deaf) because I hadn't heard such an amazing intro to a song, such power in a whole record, such energy in vocals, such feelings in lyrics... It was the perfect band... And then I realised how repetitive their songs are...

That doesn't mean anything, they still rock, but if they cut some parts of some songs and add some more riffs to others it would be absolutely perfect. Even some breakdowns would be OK to break the monotony (is that how you say it?).

For example: Counterweight, the masterpiece in this record, the best intro ever, wow! But if you pay attention enough you'll notice something, they play like two or three riffs the entire song! One for verses, one for chorus, and one for the bridge... And that's it!!! Hell it sounds great, it blows your ears, but you'll get bored soonner or later... Almost every song sounds like this, but you have to listen carefully...

Conclusion: are you planning to move from metalcore to melodeath? Do you like headbanging/moshpits and screaming choruses? Then you'll like this album. But if you're looking for more technical melodeath I'm afraid you'll get bored before you hear the complete abum...

Recommended songs: Counterweight, Armia, mybestfriends.com, Biogenesis (Undo Creation)

Oh boy, Heaven Shall Burn, so destructive, so powerful, but with a name like that they'd better be. The musical equivalent of an earthquake.

On their fourth album, Heaven Shall Burn don't try many new tricks, but the stuff that sounded good before, sounds amazing here. In the past, where the guitar melodies were punchy, on this album they're much more delicate, and the riff sections are much more crushing and brutal. The production is also much nicer here, the bands early releases were pretty punishing, not in tone but in general lack of production quality, and Antigone sounded good, but The Split Program 2 left much to be desired (vocals were too abrasive, gutiars were too high ect) but on this, it's all done properly to make Heaven Shall Burn as ferocious as possible, while still expressing their message. The vocals are lower which means your ears no longer bleed, and the gutiars aren't headache inducing, now don't think it sounds all soft and clean, the sound on this is still fucking Heaven Shall Burn. It still is liable to cause massive destruction. As heavy as the term will describe.

Absent from this album which was featured on the previous two, are the serene instrumentals done by Olafur Arnalds, but something similar does show up at the end of the 'Armia'; the albums epic which always features a crushing sludge riff in the middle. The forefront of the album is the heaviest with the majority of the crushing songs, while the end has more of the reflective songs (but even those are still ridiculously heavy....this is Heaven Shall Burn we're talking about....) The final track on the album 'The Greatest Gift of God' is pretty different for the band and features some really cool German Shouting, it's also the albums shortest song.

This album is total destruction, straight from the first song 'Counterweight' you're just pummled with heavy riffs, insane double kick assault and tortured vocals. As it stands, Heaven Shall Burn are one of the heaviest bands in metal today, in metal ever, and possibly in metals future. This band's sound is sonic destruction without being fast and brutal just for the sake of doing so.

Inspired and inspirational : Heaven Shall Burn - Deaf to Our Prayers

Recommended Listening: Counterwight, Trespassing the Shores of Our World, Stay the Course, Of No Avail, Armia.