Band:	Hevein
Album:	Sound Over Matter
Style:	Melodic thrash metal
Release date:	August 2005

01. Break Out The Hammers
02. Worth Fighting For
03. iOta
04. As Far As The Eye Can See
05. Only Human
06. Bleed The Day
07. Beg To Differ
08. Hold Fast
09. New Hope
10. Last Drop Of Innocence
11. Walk [Pantera cover] [bonus]

More Finnish Metal

Violin, cello and other orchestral instruments are not a rarity in the Metal scene, a lot of bands have incorporated these elements into their music, specially Gothic and Doom bands. While many bands use synthesizer to bring this particular sound into their music, any trained ear can tell the difference between a cold machine and the real deal.

Hevein uses the real deal, a violin and a cello (which is handled by Max Lilja, ex-Apocalyptica) paired with a mix of all sorts. Hevein is Gothic, is Melodeath Metal and is Thrash Metal, but is also Melodic, Mainstream Metal, Finnish style.

When I've heard of this band the first thing that came to my mind was Dark Lunacy, Italian act mixing Death Metal with a string quartet. Sadly this was quite different from what I imagined, but luckily it was refreshing at times. The music of Hevein mixes clean vocals with growled ones, mixes aggressive riffs with melodic counterparts, the result is a varied album, but with too much "modern" touches.

Other thing that bothered me was the fact that the violin and cello were a secondary instrument instead in taking a lead role here. Don't get me wrong, you can still hear them clearly (thanks to a crystal-clear production), but I would have expected more predominance of the strings in here, in the end, is the principal "hook" for checking out this band.

Nicely arranged, well crafted, but I think they haven't exploited their whole potential yet.. A worthy try for these Finns, I eagerly expect their next album to witness their evolution, if there's any.