Breaking Point

Mike Howe’s untimely death earlier this week spurred on a lot of people to put on the excellent albums he recorded with Metal Church again. For the record, I don’t think either Howe or Metal Church have ever sounded as good as on those records, but I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the album that first brought him to prominence: debut album ‘Breaking Point’ by California’s Heretic. While Howe’s more sophisticated work with Metal Church deservedly got the most attention, ‘Breaking Point’ is actually an above-average heavy metal album that is simultaneously typically American and typically late eighties.

Through the years, I have noticed that I have mixed up songs from ‘Breaking Point’ and Abattoir’s second album ‘The Only Safe Place’ in my head. Howe’s voice is not that different from how Mike Towers sounds on that album, though Howe has a slightly more versatile voice. Musically, Heretic’s debut album isn’t too dissimilar from Abattoir’s second either. It is about equal parts eighties US power metal and relatively slow thrash metal. While Reverend, which guitarist Brian Korban and bassist Dennis Ohara would form a year later with former Metal Church singer David Wayne, is significantly more thrashy than Heretic, there are more than a few mid-tempo thrash riffs on ‘Breaking Point’.

Ultimately, that reliance on mid-tempo is probably what made ‘Breaking Point’ more obscure than it deserved to be. It makes the album feel slightly longer than it is and it could probably have used one or two faster songs in the middle, though Korban and fellow guitairst Bob Marquez do churn out a number of excellent riffs and many of the songs don’t need to be any faster than they are. ‘And Kingdoms Fall’, for instance, might have been a faceless thrasher rather than the very stately, excellently constructed heavy metal track it is would it have had a higher tempo.

When the band does speed up, however, it does account for some of the better moments on the album. Opening track ‘Heretic’ doesn’t last much longer than two minutes after its acoustic intro, but does show how good American heavy metal could be in the eighties. Similarly, ‘Let ‘Em Bleed’ steamrolls along quite nicely and emphasizes its agression effectively by having breaks in the action. On the other side of the spectrum, closing track ‘The Search’ is an epic semi-ballad that sports a couple of great guitar solos. ‘Enemy Within’ and the highly dynamic ‘Time Runs Short’ are other highlights.

Calling ‘Breaking Point’ things like workmanlike and solid would in a way do the material a disservice, as those words are often not used as positively as they may come across. But the fact is that that is exactly what ‘Breaking Point’ is: a very solid eighties heavy metal album with well-written and – most notably – very well-arranged songs. The album kind of got lost in the shuffle due to it being the thing Mike Howe did before he joined a more successful band, but viewed on its own merits, it is one of the better albums of its kind released at the time. If you like your traditional heavy metal with a shot of thrash without it sounding too much like actual thrash metal, Heretic should be right up your alley.

Recommended tracks: ‘Heretic’, ‘And Kingdoms Fall’, ‘Let ‘Em Bleed’, ‘Time Runs Short’

Originally written for my Kevy Metal weblog

Breaking Point may have been the sole full-length from California's Heretic, but it was a kick ass album without a single filler track. It was released in 1988, the greatest year in metal, and thus buried under a whole ton of masterpiece efforts, but I was quite disappointed to find that the band would split after this, with Mike Howe going on to front Metal Church and the rest of the band, in an ironic twist, joining David Wayne (of Metal Church) to form Reverend.

All of the songs here on Breaking Point are good, and the album has not lost much shine over two decades past its release date. An extremely well balanced blend of speed and harder edged thrash metal, every guitar riff creates a violent impulse to mosh up the nearest human being in the face. Howe's vocals were dirty and powerful, and despite their central presence to the mix of the album, they never grate on your nerves like a Mustaine might. When the band does acoustics, they are timeless and memorable, like the band's namesake "Heretic" or the amazing "Pale Shelter". When it comes to thrashing, they could run neck in neck with almost all of their contemparies in the Bay Area, but Heretic also had an old school heavy metal influence which imparted a great deal of melody to their compositions.

I've seen a lot of comparison to Metal Church, but really that stems more from the bands' shared membership of Howe and probably the production of the album. Breaking Point is superior to the Torture Knows No Boundaries EP (with Julian Mendez on vocals). It is truly another of the many timeless wonders of 1988 which maintains its luster and nostalgic value after so many years, and it belongs in the collection of any metalhead of taste.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

This album is a great thrashfest with some power-metal atmosphere, and nice speed metal moments as well. It can, interestingly enough, be put in between "The Dark" and "Blessing in Disguise" in the overall Metal Church evolution - it make sense chronologically, and the songs tend to be a combination of the overtly fast and furious style of "The Dark", the more restrained and progressive thrash constructions of the second half of "Blessing in Disguise", and the even more drawn out compositions with many movements and acoustic interludes of the first half of "Blessing".

It's really quite an album - it has variety and strength in songwriting, and also an insane shitload of riffs. We start out with a little acoustic intro which builds up stronger and stronger until it breaks into a pure headbanging furious speed-metal riff, that is "The Heretic". This pretty much is yet another song that has drinken heavily from the "Freewheel Burning" fountain. There are two verses, over the same blazing guitar riff that features VERY prominently in the mix, combining with Mike Howe's powerful vocals, and then a slight riff change and some incredibly fast soloing, and then the chorus again. Yes, folks, it's speed metal. Very competently executed - short and to the point. The particular riff choice is also really good - it's half a "Freewheel Burning" riff for the most part.

Then, we have a slower thrash song, "And Kingdoms Fall". It's almost power-metal in its construction, as it doesn't overtly rip your face out, and only has about 6 different riffs over the whole song. Also, the chorus features prominently, and a main feature of this song - as well as the whole album, really - is Mike Howe's vocals. Not particularly shrieky, but definitely powerful. "The Circle" and "Enemy Within" continue along the same vein as the last song, though the specifics are a bit different.

"Time Runs Short" starts off slowly, and then builds up, with some massive bludgeoning riffs forming the basis of the song. Very well executed, and comparable in general atmosphere to some of "Blessing in Disguise". After "Pale Shelter", which is a short acoustic interlude, we get into "Shifting Fire", which is an uptempo thrasher. Probably the catchiest song on here, especially with the way the riffs under the chorus work.

Next, "Let 'em Bleed" - the other all-out speed metal song on this album. This one is longer and more developed, especially in the area of the middle guitar solo. That right there is of course total Judas Priest worship - a guitar duel that would not look out of place in "Ram it Down" or anywhere else for that matter. Pure classic 80s speed metal.

Then, "Evil for Evil" is a bit slower, and has probably the best vocals out of any song on here. "Feel the blade, cut right through - through your heart!!!!" Also, the midpaced bludgeoning thrash riffs keep cropping up here - this album definitely makes excellent use of them, ranging from everything from slower acoustic parts to "efficient speed" riff monstrosities to total speed metal.

The final song, "The Search" is the epic balladic acoustically-interluded complex song to close off the album. It's about 7 minutes long, and works very well, also being very very reminiscent of "Anthem to the Estranged" at times.

So what do we have here? A classic thrash album, that's what. I have no idea how rare this is - fuck that, get it anyway!