Artist: Heaven Shall Burn
Label: Century Media
Released: 2008
Rating: 4/5
Heaven Shall Burn are in the most productive stretch of their career right now, and barely a year and 4 months after “Deaf To Our Prayers” (2006), they’re already back with a new record, “Iconoclast (Part 1. The Final Resistance)”. The heavens are burning, the iconoclasts are making their last stand, hacking down divine images and holy symbols and diligently carrying out the principle of one of God’s ten commandments: “Thou shalt not worship idols!” That concept really does sit behind the music, and the guys once again shape it so that their lyrics make it easy to find plenty of jumping-off points for a deep discussion about the wrong turns and delusions of modern human society. For Heaven Shall Burn, practically nothing new in that respect.
On the new album, too, the guys deftly steer through a stormy blend of melodic death metal and hardcore, and these days hardly anyone can match Heaven Shall Burn at it. Their sixth album in a row is, judging by how it opens (an instrumental intro with string arrangements), once again closer to “Antigone” (2004) than to its predecessor “Deaf To Our Prayers” (2006). “Iconoclast” doesn’t bring anything new. It proves that Heaven Shall Burn are a fully formed band with a clearly recognizable identity, sound and style. They still lean first and foremost on epic melodicism, combined with the throaty, bleeding, shrill “core” screaming, which is spot-combined with deeper, contrasting lines, which is nothing new anymore for a band that at times touches on intonation that brings them close to a death metal “growl”.
After the intro, things fall into place! Here comes the track Endzeit, and in front of us are Heaven Shall Burn just the way every fan of this band wants them. This track also characterizes the bulk of the new record. Massive riffs rolling over the charging double bass pedal drumming are the framework of the sonic curtain. On top of it are layered simple but atmospheric triplet harmonies of extremely fast picking, built on just a few notes, yet enough to bring in dynamic waves and the icy breath of cataclysm. The guys can’t boast any particularly crazy muscle-flexing, so if you’re looking for speed, the dizzying heights of unpredictable, technically demanding transitions, or multiple tempo changes per song, forget it. No. Heaven Shall Burn prefer to build most of their songs on medium to slightly accelerated tempos, with transitions into a new motif that involve practically no drums at all. The transition is played with a simple triplet harmony, the drums go quiet, and then suddenly another motif and tempo show up behind it. Very simple, and designed to let the guys keep up a highly dramatic atmosphere with the unmistakable stamp of bombast and epicness. Of all the tracks, the most beautiful contrasts are strung together in the melancholic A Dying Amber, which doesn’t hide its flirtation with the Gothenburg school of melodic death metal (At The Gates, Dark Tranqulity, In Flames).
The production is geared toward emphasizing the higher tones, meaning the triplet harmonies are favored, the snare drum and double pedal stand out venomously, and luckily everything is backed by a massive smear of lower-tuned riffing, because the bass lines are practically inaudible in this kind of production. The vocals of Heaven Shall Burn are used to the maximum to build atmosphere, and despite the danger that the auditory centers of your brain might suffer mild damage from all that extreme screaming, they also bring in a bold amount of melody, something you don’t exactly find often among their North American “metalcore” colleagues.
With “Iconoclast” too, Heaven Shall Burn have delivered an ID-card record, one where the band’s character traits come through the strongest. Everything works in sync, with the building blocks right where they need to be. So the band’s evolution is practically zero, Heaven Shall Burn ride safely in the off-the-rack outfit that suits them best, and with it they make happy above all listeners who love this kind of extreme approach to music. The profile is clear. You can only fall in love with it, or it repels you in an instant. The album also features a hyper-melodic, almost properly bouncy polka, compared with the otherwise godless slaughter we witness on “Iconoclast”. That’s a cover of Edge Of Sanity called Black Tears. Heaven Shall Burn stamped it with their own mark, but for that purpose they left out the guitar solos. The end of the album is a bit of a misstep. The second-to-last track Equinox (outro) is an instrumental of pure string arrangement, which represents the exit from the album (read its title) and sounds exactly like that, logically enough. Right after it comes yet another instrumental, Atonement, totally unnecessary, though not bad, and of course chopped up in true Heaven Shall Burn fashion. It’s not a bad track, it just doesn’t belong in that spot at all. Half of that would be forgiven if it were labeled a bonus track and if the gap between Equinox and it were at least 10 seconds, so the listener gets the feeling that the album “Iconoclast” had already ended before it.
“Iconoclast”, as the sixth studio album in a row, confirms the band’s great maturity. It sounds simple, yet immensely convincing. The guys use their skills in an optimized dose, deftly lobbying the listener with their trump cards of uniqueness. The album is subordinated to the concept and so strictly follows the building of an evil, deeply doomed mood. Squandering notes and technical complexity is therefore absolutely unwelcome on it, and it would also change the familiar face of Heaven Shall Burn. This is one more very good, handsome and thoroughly convincing, typical Heaven Shall Burn album, and with its pronounced melodicism it has the potential to convert even some Def Leppard fan to listening to musical extremes.
Lineup
Marcus Bischoff – vocals
Maik Weichert – guitar
Alexander Deitz – guitar
Eric Bischoff – bass guitar
Matthias Voigt – drums
Production
Maik Weichert & Alexander Deitz
Track List
1. Awoken (intro) (01:28)
2. Endzeit (04:17)
3. Like A Thousand Suns (03:45)
4. Murderers Of All Murderers (03:54)
5. Forlorn Skies (04:50)
6. A Dying Ember (06:56)
7. Joel (05:03)
8. Quest For Resistance (04:51)
9. Black Tears (03:06)
10. The Bombs Of My Saviours (04:22)
11. Against All Lies (05:08)
12. The Disease (02:46)
13. Equinox (outro) (03:09)
14. Atonement (04:43)
15. Enhancement “Iconoclast Synopsis” (digital liner notes & illustrations to each song)
Album length: 58.17
