Heaving Earth – Denouncing the Holy Throne (Lavadome Productions)
Sunday, 8th February 2015
Let’s get the band name thing out of the way first thing. “Heaving Earth” is a song title from Morbid Angel’s Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, so clearly that’s the direction that we are going here. Denouncing the Holy Throne is the second album by this Czech band, and certainly has its appeals for the death metal crowd.
Obviously, there’s a significant chunk of Morbid Angel influence here, alongside a healthy portion of Immolation and a bit of Hate Eternal on the side. There’s a crushing weight to the guitars, which of course fits this style to a tee. When the band slows things down for a bit there’s a savage power that is elicited, like on the standout track “Worms of Rusted Congregation,” where there is some massively heavy riffing and Immolation-esque squeals. But when the barrage of blast beats comes your way, such as in “I Am Nothing,” it does tend to hit you like a freight train so they balance the two nicely. There are some sneaky little sinister melodies (see “Into the Depths of Abomination”) that keep the album from being a bit one-note and Heaving Earth has a real knack for impressive solos. If there is one thing that drags down the proceedings ever so slightly, it’s the needless “instrumentals” scattered about the album. 3 short interludes and a closing piece, none of which take off very far before they are done.
Death metal for death metal fans is a good tag line for this one. Despite the fact that it’s “more of the same,” it’s hard not to root for this one while it’s playing. Heaving Earth has nailed all the major aspects of the genre, even if it is diluted a bit by the number of instrumental pieces. Between Heaving Earth and Destroying Divinity, Lavadome Productions has got a pretty good thing going right now for death metal.
