Heaven Shall Burn - Iconoclast
Century Media - CM997745-2 - 28th January 2008
By Paddy Walsh
Having initially familiarized myself with
Heaven Shall Burn circa 2004's
Antigone, I was struck by their refusal to teeter into metalcore's oft-annoying tendency to become overly melodic and blunt their attack, and thus
Antigone was a vicious piece of work, remaining rooted to my cd player for quite some time. Cut to 2008, and i've completely missed the boat with
Heaven Shall Burn, having overlooked 2006's
Deaf to our Prayers, only for
Iconoclast to end up in my hands.
Fearing what i thought to be an almost inevitable
Caliban-esque wimp-out (who
Heaven Shall Burn released a split with in 2005),
Iconoclast was approached with caution. As a string-led instrumental segues into opener 'Endzeit', however, it quickly becomes clear that
Heaven Shall Burn have not softened one iota in the intervening years, their melodic thrash continuing to have a noticable death metal strand running through it. Aforementioned opener's flirtations with the intro track mark it out as a stand-out, hinting at what could be if
Heaven Shall Burn were to incorporate more orchestration into their somewhat linear attack, as
Iconoclast suffers somewhat from a lack of deviation from their formula, and it's a little disappointing that their progression has remained stationary. Still, it's hard not to be pulverized by the likes of 'Like a Thousand Suns', and the rabid melodicism of 'Black Tears' is a treat too. Like the first two tracks, closers 'Equinox' and 'Atonement' segue together in a rather epic fashion, the former a string-led dirge, the latter a surprisingly doomy affair, which ends proceedings in a suitably downbeat fashion. Overall then,
Iconoclast might seem business as usual, but it's head and shoulders about most of its peers, with strong songwriting, vicious vocals and an uncompromising ahderence to pure, undiluted heaviness.
Official Heaven Shall Burn Website
Official Century Media Website
