Album review: Heaven Shall Burn – Heimat

You could never accuse Heaven Shall Burn of subtlety, having taken the ethos of 'go big or go home' to heart pretty much since their inception. But, on their 10th full-length the German metalcore crew hold absolutely nothing back, making Heimat simply huge, if not 100 per cent engaging.

The album is bookended by mournful string instrumentals, with the first track proper being War Is The Father Of All, and they pack a record's worth of dynamics into its seven minutes, throwing a choir into the mix alongside everything else in their arsenal. It's a ballsy statement, and the likes of Confounder, with its skittering synths and riffs and poppy Empowerment are definitely cut from the same cloth.

Proving they can straight-up hit hard are the mean My Revocation Of Compliance and driving Those Left Behind, which focus on doing damage rather than raising fists in the air, and there is a winning swagger to Ten Days In May, which has an almost Viking-esque feel to it. The record's emotional apex, however, comes with the epic A Silent Guard, which pitches gigantic riffs against brittle passages and almost causes a lump to catch in the throat.

The only real problem is that it is just too damn long at 56 minutes, and it's hard to maintain interest, particularly when they drag you through a redundant cover of Killswitch Engage's Numbered Days. Still, there is more than enough here to merit paying attention to, because when they are at their best they are a force to be reckoned with.

Verdict: 3/5

For fans of: Orbit Culture, Killswitch Engage, Machine Head

Heimat is released on June 27 via Century Media