What are your opinions on this band? Favorite album? Favorite songs?

Behind Metallica, Heathen are my favorite thrash metal band. Very technical and complex. My favorote album is Victims of Deception and songs are Prisoners of Fate, Mercy Is No Virtue, and Heathens Song.

My favorite Heathen album is the 2005 Demo. The songs on it are absolutely solid, and it gives me hope for the future of Thrash Metal.

A new Heathen album will be in 09'

Cannot wait to hear it.

Breaking the Silence is a great speed metal album. The only complaint I have is that Godfrey is kind of a lame vocalist and his vocals could either be a lot more vicious or a bit more melodic, maybe something like Kai Hansen on Walls of Jericho or Tom Araya on Show No Mercy or something. Not a big deal, though, because the songs are all excellent. Even the Sweet cover fits in well. "Open the Grave", the title track and "World's End" are probably the best Heathen songs ever, as well as "Heathen", of course.

Victims of Deception... isn't that good in my opinion. It's heavy as hell and has a couple of great songs, but it just feels so anticlimatic. Just when you think the song is going to explode into some furious thrashing, you'll get a half-assed breakdown or a really boring and generic riff. I like the epic approach, though, and for example "Heathen's Song" (obviously) and "Fear of the Unknown" are excellent songs. "Prisoners of Fate" is garbage and "Kill the King" just pointless.

The 2005 Demo was pretty cool and better than Victims, for sure, but I'm not really that excited about the new album.

Odd you make this comparison, because in my opinion Godfrey on their debut reminds me a lot of Kai Hansen's singing off Helloween's debut, but Godfrey definitely sounds like the better singer to me. That said, I guess they're both a hit or miss for most. A lot tend to say Godfrey's singing wasn't totally developed on their debut (I agree to some extent) and the same with Kai's singing compared to what he later sounded like with Gamma Ray. Regardless, I enjoy vocals on both albums a lot ...

Heathen's one of my favorite thrash bands and throughout the previous year, I think I ended up finding out that I'm simply not that big on most Bay Area thrash bands. With a band like say, Overkill, I tend to only really enjoy their debut the most because it contains a lot more speed/traditional elements than their later stuff. Overall I always find myself going for the more obscure thrash bands or those that are simply faster, more melodic, speed/thrash rather than the "chugging" kind of stuff you might hear in bands like Exodus, etc. Heathen however is one band that I think does the Bay Area sound really well (at least on Victims). Catchy, fun, easy to get into.

But ... (and if you didn't see this coming), I have pretty much always prefered their debut because it tends to sound a little faster and is obviously more speed/thrash than their later material. Hell though, I wish the album were even faster than it is ... if you've heard some of the demo versions of some tracks like Pray for Death you probably know what I mean. If Heathen were just a bit more faster, it'd be fucking crazy.

But yeah I love Victims and their 2005 demo a ton as well. I've been unpatiently awaiting their next release for way too damn long, hopefully 2009 is the year.

Still think Victims of Deception is their best release.

Yeah, they do have a kind of similar tone. Hansen is just more over-the-top when Godfrey's vocals sound a bit restrained.

Every time I try to introduce or describe the band to someone I usually end up with what sounds like a generic Bay Area thrash band, but for some reason Heathen makes it work.

Heathen is one of those bands that didn't really bring anything new to the table or break any barriers in the genre but still manage to be solid and refreshing compared to other bands (I'm looking at you, Defiance ).

I used to favor Victims over Breaking the Silence but after listening to "Worlds End" a bunch of times my mind was changed. I agree that a lot of Victims is a bit anti-climatic but it still manages to stay good (especially with songs like "Hypnotized" and "Opiate of the Masses").

One thing I've liked about Heathen is their ability to milk a riff dry and even after the song is done you still want more of it. A lot of their songs only have 5-6 riffs at most but they're so good and work so well that it doesn't feel very repetitive.

It's also nice that they have their albums up on their site for free

Not a bad band, but I think the free MP3 thing is what makes so many people praise them. Breaking the Silence is a very solid speed/thrash album but nothing that hadn't been done (at least) two years before it. With Victims of Deception they jumped on the Metallica worship bandwagon and it is pretty much another failure of dickless "epic"-thrash, two songs (Hypnotized and Morbid Curiosity) and a truckload of sexy guitar solos aside.

The demo is undoubtedly the most loyal thrash release in the last decade though, so they deserve bonus points for that. We'll see if the full-length lives up to it.

Yeah, you're probably right about this point. Damn, now I need to relisten to WoJ for the thousandth time.

"Half-assed" breakdowns?

Who are your favorite thrash band? I am curious.

Meh, this band tends to bounce between kick ass epics, and dull ass thrash. They have great solos though.

+1

Live they still shred. Saw them three months ago her eon a festival in Germany. The Victims Of Deception tracks totally killed. Lee Altus' guitar and David Godfrey were just awesome...

80's Slayer, Kreator, Celtic Frost, Morbid Saint, Destruction, the Brazilian gods etc., doesn't really matter. When it comes to breakdowns, see Sodom's "Agent Orange" and Coroner's "Sudden Fall" for examples.

Maybe "half-assed" was a wrong word, but I meant that just when you expect something great to happen, Heathen just throw in a mediocre riff and go back to square one instead of going forward (like Sodom), even though it feels like they could thrash the fuck out of everything if they wanted to. There just aren't any real highlight moments on the album, which is a shame, because I still like the album despite its flaws.

I'd like to throw this out there right now. These are called "thrash breaks" not breakdowns. Breakdowns are those crappy things associated with -core bands.

It doesn't matter what you want to call them, technically they're still breakdowns, just not gay. But whatever.

solid band. I have breaking the silence on cassette, fucking solid release!

EXACTLY, that why they should be referred to as thrash breaks.

Was lucky enough to catch Heathen on the Victims tour in 1991. They were great. I've been looking forward to new material since the 2005 demo.

I am not new to thrash. There is no need to make an attempt to "school" me on thrash breakdowns. I respect your opinion and everything. I just was curious on what your tastes were, because a lot of people come in here and make ridiculous posts, then never state who they think are better, or give examples of how they feel it should be done, etc...

I am not telling you that you're "wrong," for feeling that way. But your tastes helped indicate to me why that album would not be a winner for you. Fair enough.

Great band, the two albums are solid as fuck, I always thought they were unfairly over looked in the day when it came to thrash discussions. I think their new album will be a wake up call and prove the older bands can still thrash like fuck!

But what about breakdowns in death metal and other genres, then? Breakdown is a term we need to take back for true metal; the crappy breakdowns in metalcore are what need to be called by a special name, like "shit breaks" or "gay breaks" or whatever. Of course, "thrash break" is still a perfectly valid term, but the word "breakdown" need not be thrown away because of the taints.

Heh, I certainly didn't mean it like that. Just thought I'd elaborate a bit. I know you know more about thrash than most people around here.

Don't even worry about it, man.

I had just woken up and I was edgy from dealing with a bitch of a girl last night.

But yeah, anyway. Heathen's next album is going to surpass Victims, in my opinion.

2005 Demo, arguably ranks up to M-16 as the best thrash this decade.

Wiggercore breaks.