Heaven Shall Burn

The hype around these Germans seems to be a bit unwarranted. The nine cuts proper on Antigone are simply more of the same ol’, same ol’ in this situation meaning melodic death metal mixed up with mosh-heavy hardcore. Solid stuff, but thinking back on the past five years, it’s hard to believe this genre still thrives, really. I guess folks not into metal didn’t get tired of Gothenburg-styled melodicisms several years back, so for them, Heaven Shall Burn will sound like pure perfection, melodies mixed with brutality, clever songwriting (kind of) meets the pit. But many others will just fall asleep, the sounds of metalcore clashing with Gothenburg providing a nice fluffy sonic pillow to violently pass out to. I like the powerful vocals of screamer Marcus Bischoff, but apart from that, this is paint-by-numbers melodic metal, which just really doesn’t cut it in 2004.