Reviews

There's something I think we can all agree on - when it comes to the more extreme subgenre's of metal, Europeans do it and do it right. Heaven Shall Burn is a great example of this. Hailing from Saalfeld, Germany, these guys play some of the better high profile metal to come out of Europe in the past few years. Granted, their sound isn't particularly breaking any new ground, but it's nice to occasionally hear a socially conscious metal record that doesn't sound too preachy, which is a very difficult feat to achieve.

Sonically, the band combine elements of black metal, death metal, and symphonic metal to great effect and this record is no exception. The short symphonic parts are just enough and occur in just the right places to give listeners a breather while maintaining the tension during the onslaught of guitars and double-bass. At the same time, while Heaven Shall Burn take from some of the more underground subgenre's of metal, the production is slick enough that it should be easy for anyone with a remote interest in darker sounding metal to get into this. I hesitate to put this label on the band because it sounds derogatory, but I don't mean it as such. Heaven Shall Burn are probably the most accessible and easy to listen to extreme metal around. That'd be insult if they weren't so good.

This is definitely one of the best albums I've been sent to review since I've been with punkbands.com. If you have even the slightest passing interest in metal/punk, do yourself a favor and pick this one up.