Heathen The Evolution of Chaos
by Alissa Ordabai
Staff Writer
With some riffs and ideas on this record being over 20 years old, no wonder this release takes you back to the spirit of the golden days of thrash better than a rocket-propelled time machine. The brilliance with which Heathen have managed to capture the spirit of that time and to juxtapose it with the now makes you think the band has decided to come back after a 20-year hiatus with brand-new material only to show to the new guys (as well as some of the old guys) what real metal should sound like.
Far from being an anachronism, The Evolution of Chaos is more like a breath of fresh air, a window into the era which was perhaps more naïve but certainly more explorative and braver than what the genre has to offer these days. And far from letting their creative juices go sour, Heathen have managed to preserve their ingenuity and their fury to give us not only a magnificent vision of thrash in all of its primordial glory, but a stinging reminder of how far some of their Bay Area contemporaries have now stridden from the original vision which was propelled by character, guts, and spirit – not by a desire to earn cash.
Superbly elegant in its high-voltage virtuosity, guitar work by Lee Altus contrasted by explosive gunfire by newcomer Kragen Lum, space-rocking singing from David White and wall-of-fire rhythm section courtesy of Jon Torres and Darren Minter present flawless, breathtakingly fluid, but at the same time gritty execution of perfectly composed material. And while the band’s chops are spectacular, the emphasis remains on the songs, which go from take-no-prisoners rampage of tracks like “Control by Chaos” to somber, Orion-like magnificence of “No Stone Unturned”.
To sum it all up, the 20-years wait has definitely been worth it, The Evolution of Chaos covering the gap between the past and the present and delivering the final verdict on the evolution of metal. Attitude and genuine feeling, we now find out, are structural elements of the genre. They have to be there and cannot be added by hype, celebrity, or inductions into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame. Not that we didn’t suspect this before, but this time the message comes louder and clearer than anyone has been expecting.
http://www.myspace.com/heathenmetal
Label: Mascot
Track Listing:
1. Intro
2. Dying Season
3. Control by Chaos
4. No Stone Unturned
5. Arrows of Agony
6. Fade Away
7. A Hero’s Welcome
8. Undone
9. Bloodkult
10. Red Tears of Disgrace
11. Silent Nothingness
Hardrock Haven rating: 9/10