Diabolic Prophecies

I do not know about readers of my reviews, but I did not expect miracles from such a name - definitely more dubious quality of a tribute band with their new material (?) than something worth discussing. So my surprise was even greater for the Czechs from Heaving Earth, because their music, despite the lack of breakthrough, attracts and can keep you interested for longer. Well, Tomáš Halama's band - unlike a large crowd of newer death metal bands - decided to approach the extreme (American-type) without intrusive copying, with a sensible, stuffy atmosphere and efficiently enough to make a significant part of the songs have a "catchy points". First of all, the obvious influence of the middle Morbid Angel (i.e. from "Domination" to "Gateways To Annihilation"), the Czechs pushed it to the background, and in front of the first row they put those from the later Immolation, by which they created an interesting mixture of "tarry" death metal. Their debut album entitled "Diabolic Prophecies" showed nicely that Heaving Earth is not a boring combination of Immolation and Morbid Angel.

On the debut of Tomáš Halama's group there is death metal, full of twisted riffs, slightly "cosmic" solos and varied drumming, soaked in a hellish aura (straight from the cover). Heaviness on "Diabolic Prophecies" is therefore concrete, although it must be admitted that the band fares most interestingly at medium paces. There, in particular, are surprisingly many twisted riffs (obligatory with the use of higher notes - like Robert Vigna) and amazing solos, which - for me - appear to be the greatest assets of "Diabolic...". Especially in this second element, the band perfectly draws on the cds of known bands, although it's absolutely impossible to name it as a boring copy - the Czechs have a slightly different feeling and idea for melodies in terms of these inspirations. To confirm: "Disciples Of Obscurity", "Beyond The Void", "Hideous Idiolatry Violation" and "Atavistic Revelation", which in addition to the aforementioned pluses, can also sensibly use the longer duration. On average, I am convinced by the production on this album (especially the drums - glaring with plastic at faster speeds) and the vocals of Michal Kusák (terribly generic). With such music, a more natural and fleshy sound and a traditional, guttural, low growl (without screeching) would fit much better.

Despite quite modest (not to say, even insignificant) success and hype on "Diabolic Prophecies", Heaving Earth's debut is definitely a position worth exploring. After it, you can hear perfectly well that apart from funny grindcore bands or total madmen mixing between extreme metal styles, there is a place on the Czech scene for a band sensibly inspired by Immolation and Morbid Angel. It's called Heaving Earth.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2022/04/heaving-earth-diabolic-prophecies-2010.html

With the opening song, Serpents Domination, the powers of darkness can no longer be held under the surface of the Earth and the blasting hellfire bursts out! However, Heaving Earth are not just blasting in extreme speeds, the level of their songwriting skills allows them to slow down and build up majestic compositions in the vein of their very inspirators Immolation or Morbid Angel.

The combination of the opening riff from Beyond the Void with the infernal blasts of tom-tom class strategic warheads is a perfect musicalization of the front cover created by great italian artist Marco Hasmann, pure infernal chaos springing to the surface of this world. This track shows what I am talking about. The dynamic of this album is very traditional, a well known simple model of alternating fast hellstrikes with slow and mid-paced songs that work very well here. You have to be a very good composer to not lose the listeners' attention with songs seven minutes long, and that's the main asset of Heaving Earth, even though these guys are not re-inventing death metal. No one is gonna write good riffs instead of you and the riffs and leads on this album are first class! You can also comfortably identify their strongest influences, but HE have their own face and the songwriting is absolutely comprehensive and lacks weak moments. The songs are well thought-out compositions, showing that the songwriting skills of Tomáš Halama (mastermind behind this band) are very profound. You can hear it in perfect arrangements of weaving guitar lines,l drum fills, riffs that gradually develop, and all of them sit in the right places in the songs. The same goes for leads as Heaving Earth compose real songs and not tracks of senseless riffage and random blasting.

I sure have some objections, two of them go to the sound. The sound of the drums isn't organic at all and the overall sound of this record is sort of flat. Also, the drum parts could be more inventive in the slow parts and the vocals sure could be more brutal (well, this is already resolved as Zlababa of Brutally Deceased is the new vocalist), but I think this is a great debut and the beast of Heaving Earth has some promising future. It's a shame the label wasn't capable of appropriate promotion because this album is like a hell-risen lava flow, spreading chaos and death on its way to the heavenly kingdom. Buy or die!
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P.S. If you seek another Czech act reaching this level of musicanship and great songwriting in the vein of the Supreme ones of the '90's era, give Destroying Divinity a try. If you like this, make sure you check them out too!