Heaven Shall Burn are a German Death Metal/Metalcore band formed in 1996 and releasing their debut Asunder four years later. The band has a very stable line-up and currently consisting of vocalist Marcus Bischoff, guitarists Maik Weichert and Alexander Dietz, bassist Eric Bischoff and drummer Christian Bass. I started to follow the band around the release of 2013's Veto which I like a lot. Overall it's not a band that I love all discography or albums from start to finish. Personally it's more of a "best of" band. They have some amazing songs released over the years and put out a fantastic and energetic show.
Following 2016's Wanderer, Of Truth And Sacrifice is Heaven Shall Burn's ninth album and it's the biggest gap between two studio albums. That's because the band allowed themselves a well-deserved break. As a result Of Truth And Sacrifice is massive double album. 100 minutes of music in 19 tracks! Given this scale the band also had a lot of room for surprises and experiments. Conceptually the album is split into two halves Of Truth (CD1) And Sacrifice (CD2).
The Of Truth album kick-off with an engaging intro which clearly can be used to open their concerts. "Thoughts and Prayers" follows and reminds me a lot of "Combat" which is one of my favorite songs. Several other songs are straightforward Heaven Shall Burn as we come to love it (e.g. "Protector", "What War Means" or "Terminate the Unconcern"). "Übermacht" (superior in German), featuring an anthemic and groovy feeling while using some electronic music influences, is the first moment on the album that really feels different from previous releases. It's overall a cool song and the the middle section break works very well. The single "My Heart and the Ocean" is another highlight. A very melo death metal song, almost sounding like Amon Amarth. One of the tools explored this time around was symphonic arrangements and piano. They are used more than once throughout the album. For example during the fully experimental "Expatriate".
The And Sacrifice half opens up with the almost 7-min long "Children of a Lesser God" which is more mid-tempo in the lines of the successful Veto's "Hunters Will Be Hunted". But then "La Résistance" goes too far on the electronic to my taste. It's a Rammstein-like song that we can dace to it. "Tirpitz" and "Eagles Among Vultures" are some other good moments of energetic mosh pit material. Heaven Shall Burn traditionally cover with their own spin some cool songs and also use those as part of their live set list. Most notably "Black Tears" (Edge of Sanity). Now the cover of Nuclear Assault’s “Critical Mass,” is included near the end of Sacrifice. The symphonic element are back in the closer "Weakness Leaving My Heart". An interesting and melancholic way to close the album.
The vocal performance of singer Marcus Bischoff is one of his best to date showing more versatility than ever before. Lyrics are as always based on social and ecological injustices. The production is clean and loud, meaning not very different from previous albums. The amazing artwork courtesy of Eliran Kantor (Testament, Iced Earth, Sodom) is topping off this very special album.
Of Truth And Sacrifice is much more than an overdose of metalcore, for better or worse Heaven Shall Burn expanded their sound into industrial and melo death and even a hint of groove metal. Additionally they added piano and orchestral arrangements to a few songs bringing a progressive feel to them. I do like Heaven Shall Burn quite s lot but I must say it's intimidating to be confronted with 100 minutes of metalcore. While I appreciate the experimentation, it did not always work for me, specially CD2 has a lot of uncut fat. The good thing is that when you distill those 100 min into a more manageable length, you will get a freaking awesome playlist.
SCORE: 81(CD1) & 74(CD2) / 100
Genre: Melodic Death Metal/Metalcore
Released by Century Media Records on March 20th, 2020
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Rating System
96 - 100 Perfect
88 - 95 Excellent
84 - 87 Great
80 - 83 Very Good
75 - 79 Good
69 - 74 Mixed
58 - 68 Bad
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