A big return from Heaven Shall Burn and with a rather risky attempt. In the music industry, it was never wise for a band or artist to release a double album, but the Germans didn’t seem to have any problem doing it. Three years after “Wanderer”, the quintet from Thuringia present their ninth full-length release.
“Of Truth & Sacrifice” contains two parts with nearly fifty minutes of music each. Seventeen songs plus two instrumentals as intro/outro are here and it’s impressive that the quality remains in top level through the entirety of it. Overall, it’s a tremendous work with lots of experimentations.
In the first part, “Of Truth”, the very nice and melodic “March Of Retribution” is ideal as intro and is followed by the amazing “Thoughts And Prayers” with a great main riff in the well-known style of the Germans. This means melodic death metal (mainly) with strong doses of metalcore, a unique sound of their own that is easily recognized. There are no bad moments here, but I want to mention “Eradicate” with the terrific lead and melodic solo, “Übermacht” with the samples and the industrial character and “Terminate The Unconcern”. “Expatriate” is a category of its own, as it is nine minutes long. The keys and strings create a special atmosphere in which Marcus Bischoff narrates in German and English, while the electric outbursts at certain parts make the result even better.
As for the second part, “Sacrifice”, a big surprise is “La Résistance” with the extended use of synths that makes it an…electronic metalcore song. You can’t say though that it’s not good, even here they did a great job. “The Sorrows Of Victory” is experimental with many changes and clean vocals. As usual, another cover will find its way in the album and this time is “Critical Mass” by Nuclear Assault. One of the best is “Weakness Leaving My Heart”, the last one of this release. It starts in an atmospheric way with keys and strings, the aggressiveness takes on before closing as beautiful and melodic as it started.
In this release, Heaven Shall Burn show us their restless spirit without even having a mediocre song. Whether they play in their well-known style or not, the result is great, even with all these experimentations. The production is flawless and their video-clips are once more something special, as they show both the artistic and funny side of them. One of them, combines two different songs, one from each part. Amazing release in any aspect.
