Antigone

Recorded 2004 (German Death/Thrash/Metalcore!) I have only begun listening to Heaven Shall Burn in the last few months or so. On this disc, Heaven Shall Burn manage to combine a number of different metallic & non-metallic elements, yet still produce an album that hits like a ton of bricks. The band experiments with clean vocals, incorporates pianos into some of the songs & enlists the aid of several guest artists, primarily to create an intro & two outros that are chilling & hauntingly beautiful, punctuated by melancholy violins & pianos. These instrumental pieces provide stark contrast to & give more atmosphere to the otherwise unrelenting barrage of bone-crunching metal. They also give you some time to catch your breath. This is some of the most devastating metal I have heard in a long time, forgoing so many of the niceties of modern metal & going straight for the jugular with all the subtlety of a wild elephant. Most of the songs aren't too fast, but they are full of jaw-dropping hooks, vicious dual-guitar frenzies & hard-hitting bass drums & cymbal crashes. The singer, Marcus, does not have the stereotypical super-deep death metal voice, but rather he delivers his grim lyrics with a shrill, piercing scream that borders on the edges of human comprehension. The high points on this album for me are "Architects of the Apocalypse" & "Voice of the Voiceless" but really this album has no weaknesses. I love putting this disc on in my car & cranking the volume full blast & watching the more sensitive souls amongst us cringe at its sheer brutality. I cannot recommend this album highly enough for those who appreciate extreme metal. Raise those devil horns! 1. Echoes (Intro) 2. The Weapon They Fear 3. The Only Truth 4. Architects Of The Apocalypse 5. Voice Of The Voiceless 6. Numbing The Pain 7. To Harvest The Storm 8. Rsandi Von (Outro) 9. Bleeding To Death 10. Tree Of Freedom 11. The Dream Is Dead 12. Deyjandi Von (Outro)