Best thrash release of the year, hands down

I haven't been overly impressed by thrash in general this year. Doubt this will change that but worth a shot anyway.

Sad excuse for a reunion, I didnt expect much and even then I'm disappointed

Edit: Also, all this chugging and horrible production reminds me of another sad reunion on the same label, Exhorder. Coincidence ?

Written by Rulatore on 18.09.2020 at 18:24

Sad excuse for a reunion, I didnt expect much and even then I'm disappointed

The reunion was in early 2000s, the band hasn't been disabanded after that afaik and they've been at least somewhat active playing live the whole time.

Written by Rulatore on 18.09.2020 at 18:24

Edit: Also, all this chugging and horrible production reminds me of another sad reunion on the same label, Exhorder. Coincidence ?

I agree that the production isn't best available, but not worst either. Nuclear Blast is dogshit label with generally quantity over quality policy with only a few exceptions. The Evolution of Chaos was a great album IMO on Nuclear Blast's standards. Too early to comment on how good album is, I will give it some more plays.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 18.09.2020 at 16:40

I haven't been overly impressed by thrash in general this year. Doubt this will change that but worth a shot anyway.

Genre has been pretty letdown alright for ages, but Heathen is known to deliver good thrash.

Written by Joppe on 18.09.2020 at 19:56

Written by Rulatore on 18.09.2020 at 18:24

Sad excuse for a reunion, I didnt expect much and even then I'm disappointed

The reunion was in early 2000s, the band hasn't been disabanded after that afaik and they've been at least somewhat active playing live the whole time.

Written by Rulatore on 18.09.2020 at 18:24

Edit: Also, all this chugging and horrible production reminds me of another sad reunion on the same label, Exhorder. Coincidence ?

I agree that the production isn't best available, but not worst either. Nuclear Blast is dogshit label with generally quantity over quality policy with only a few exceptions. The Evolution of Chaos was a great album IMO on Nuclear Blast's standards. Too early to comment on how good album is, I will give it some more plays.

Ah yes, technically they didnt disband, but still, after all these years they reunited to write new songs.

Neither the production or the songs are good here, just plastic formulaic stuff from all the fronts. Considering their earlier outputs I'm amazed how bad the guitars sound and how boring is the play here, it's like they were forced into it

Written by Rulatore on 18.09.2020 at 21:32

Considering their earlier outputs I'm amazed how bad the guitars sound and how boring is the play here, it's like they were forced into it

The guitars are tuned in D Standard aka DGCFAD on this album which is maybe a bit unusual for thrash. As I wrote earlier: the production I don't think it's either best or worst, it does sound like "Heathen", it sounds like the previous album. I will comment on the songs soon, after letting them some time to sink in.

For Heathen's standards, this album is embarrassing.

After the solid Evolution of Chaos, I was looking forward to a new Heathen album, but what I got is a poor man's Exodus ripoff. Such a shame.

I liked it, I'm not gonna lie, but I agree, their previous works are superior (for lack of a better word).

11 years since last, sort come back album, I was hoping it would be better, it has TM riffs but songs are mediacore, somehow simply from ordinary bands, not such old band.
IMO half ballad was best song ''share to apathy''

After giving some thought on this album I have to the conclusion that it is dogshit, it isn't the Heathen we used to know. The songwriting sounds off, I don't see where they wanted to go with most of these songs when it sounds 1 part thrash, 1 part some other stuff, and the result is sort of a mess that isn't really strong in anything, even the thrash aspects sound weak. I don't see myself listening to most of these songs again as there isn't much to go back to; they're not great compositions and hardly memorable at all.

Pros: there's lots of great guitar melodies pretty much throughout the whole album. Cons: the songwriting is mostly lackluster and the production is pretty bad and for certain affects negatively on how the songs are perceived.

Best moments: The Blight, Shrine of Apathy, The Gods Divide (...and maybe A Fine Red Mist).

Maybe they should have taken another 10 years to work on the songs

This doesn't deserve the Bay Area thrash label. It's overproduced, commercialized melodic metal with some thrashy moments. Sounds like something they threw together in a couple weeks in order to please some bigwig producers looking to make bank on the Heathen name that used to have meaning.

Nikarg is absolutely right. This is not Thrash Metal. This is Trash Metal. Completely forgettable.

Major letdown from one of my favourite bands ever. I don't even know what happened here, everything just feels so lame and boring. There are way worse albums in this world, but until this I didn't even know these guys were capable of being this forgettable and average.

This sounds like discount, watered-down Exodus, not Heathen.

Howley crup

Written by Redel on 15.02.2021 at 23:17

Howley crup

You must have dodged lots of bad albums I've heard if this is a 3

Written by Joppe on 16.02.2021 at 17:23

You must have dodged lots of bad albums I've heard if this is a 3

I know it is a harsh rate. And the album is in fact between a 3 and a 4 for me.
But it is definitely worse than all those several 100s of average (rate 6) and slightly below average (rate 5) albums that I have heard so far.

Written by Redel on 16.02.2021 at 17:41

Written by Joppe on 16.02.2021 at 17:23

You must have dodged lots of bad albums I've heard if this is a 3

I know it is a harsh rate. And the album is in fact between a 3 and a 4 for me.
But it is definitely worse than all those several 100s of average (rate 6) and slightly below average (rate 5) albums that I have heard so far.

I have heard many thrash albums, and if this album counts as thrash, I don't see it any worse than those late 80s and early 90s tier 2 or 3 thrash albums, that would rate 5-6. Having a song like The Blight already makes the album slightly better than some of crap I listened