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Anyone who listens to this double album without any preconceived notions will notice that this production is of a quality that can be classified in the upper league of extreme metal. The sound is flawless, well-balanced, and almost exclusively serves the song. What do I mean by that? This: When it needs to hit hard, it hits hard; when something exciting happens on the guitar, it is clearly audible, and when atmospheric instrumental passages carry the song, they take enough time to build something up. Here, experienced musicians are at work, who have skillfully composed something extensive and ambitious from their honed craft.
These records want to be listened to in one go. Musically, a colorful palette of heavy styles is presented, shredding, growling, blast beats, plenty of it, and yet with enough melody that you don't just experience pure destruction. The stylistic deviations into electronics and orchestral string passages are nothing new in 2020, but they are well done and give the songs good dynamics and variety. Well-copied (from RAMMSTEIN, REFUSED, oh, let's just say it, THE BEATLES) is perfectly fine with me when it is done so skillfully.
Something has irritated me about HEAVEN SHALL BURN, an inner contradiction in an otherwise almost too smooth professional music production. In a sound that expresses a controlled, simmering violence (“METAL-”), the musicians lay down a confrontation with leftist social issues that obviously stem from their own everyday life (“HardCORE”). So far, so understandable, but this pathos, this Lord of the Rings rhetoric, where it never goes under terms like victory or downfall, these terms are too far removed from the content for me to reconcile them emotionally. Perhaps it is simply a bit too much to ask, and yet I wish that this connection would succeed better.
Another facet opens up when you watch the documentary "Mein grünes Herz in dunklen Zeiten" about HEAVEN SHALL BURN, which has been kindly made accessible to us. These are not rock stars; these are metal fans who have worked their way up over 20 years and now have a very skilled metal band as their most important hobby, with which they can also shake Wacken. And then on Monday, it’s back to work. Or to studies. To family. Down-to-earth. Authentic. Sympathetic. Unpretentious. A little… boring? Perhaps this paint-by-numbers approach to heavy music lacks the wildness, the unpredictability, and the chaotic elements to reach the greatness of their role models, to take a step beyond what is already established.
Why a double album, anyway? While the first disc is probably close to the band's usual style, the second is significantly bolder and more varied in sounds and styles. I hear rock, I hear a Slayer guitar, guest vocalists, and the dynamics between loud and quiet, calm and brutal are used more. Perhaps one could have made a single, ultra-dense super CD from the ideas of both discs? Could have, would have, should have. But they didn't.
So "Of Truth and Sacrifice" remains a coherent, versatile double album that I will definitely play often when I'm in the mood. Due to its length, I definitely have enough material to thoroughly clear my ear canals and discover new things even after the third spin. However, there is still room for improvement before reaching the heavens, and surely more interesting things from HEAVEN SHALL BURN will come our way.
