An integral part of the mid-1990s wave of crossover bands, Germany's Heaven Shall Burn combine death and thrash metal with hardcore. As such, they are renowned for loading their lyrics with socio-political and militant views - their band name, taken from the Marduk album, being not so much an anti-religious statement as a stand against escapism.
Hard-working and seemingly open to new ideas, HSB are no strangers to the odd world tour, split releases, cover songs and concept albums. In fact, 'Invictus', their sixth studio album, is the final instalment of their conceptual 'Iconoclast' trilogy, with the now familiar sight of Tue Madsen on production duties, and concentrates on Nietzschean philosophy, destroying our idols and casting war heroes in a fresh light.
Nothing is quite as it seems with this album. Gentle introductions lead to colossal avalanches of sound that tumble down from exploding peaks of guitar and bass. Bischoff, multi-tracked vocal in tow, offers up his toneless gang roar to accompany the incendiary bombs going off behind him; often strangely at odds with the cleaner guitar parts. Then there's jarringly inventive experiments that are strongly reminiscent of bands like Bleeding Through and Unearth. 'Combat', for instance, has a synthetic quality, with an undercurrent of pulsed electro beats and overloaded guitars that arpeggio through rise and fall and into effects-laden overdrive and feedback. It's a track that is clearly married to the graveyard disco intro and hooky chorus of 'The Lie You Bleed For'. Then there's the guitars on 'Buried In Forgotten Grounds' which daintily zig-zag their way beneath Matthias Voigt's mighty double-kick, Eric Bischoff's slapped bass notes and a barrage of vocal butchness, but it's the middle section of piano and dying string solos that really mark it out.
Hopelessly lost in meandering, Euro-friendly melodeath, 'Sevastopol' is a step backwards but when you've got balls-to-the-wall, sure-fire headbangers like 'Against Bridge Burners' and 'Return To Sanity' as well as surprises like the double-pronged vocal attack (with Sabine Weniger providing the top-end contrast) on 'Given In Death' to back it up, you can almost forgive the filler. Yep, 'Invictus' is more than just a mere completion of a project, it's a forward-looking album loaded with old-school integrity, yet blessed with a fresh-faced ingenuity.
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