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Heir Apparent > The View from Below > Reviews
Heir Apparent - The View from Below

We Hold the Key to What's Inside - 90%

Twisted_Psychology, December 13th, 2018

Seeing how Heir Apparent last graced us with a full-length album twenty-nine years ago, it was only inevitable for time to alter the Seattle group’s power-prog formula. The band remains defined by clean production complete with flamboyant vocals and intricate rhythms, but this material is not so easily comparable to Queensryche or Helloween as Graceful Inheritance or One Small Voice had been. If anything, The View from Below has more in common with what Fates Warning and Dream Theater were peddling in the early 90s.

While Heir Apparent was never afraid to include slower songs back in the day, this is easily their most introspective album to date. Aside from the two-minute speed metal on “Savior,” the songs are mostly comprised of md-tempo slow burns whose decidedly longer lengths allow for greater buildups. The approach can seem somewhat anticlimactic or same-ish at times, especially for more straightforward listeners, but it rarely feels directionless.

It helps that there are some excellent tracks on here. While “The Man in the Sky” does a good job of starting things off, “The Door” stands out for its more urgent pacing and “Here We Aren’t” makes for a strong ballad with gorgeous piano work and passionate vocals that avoid going too over the top. “The Road to Palestine” also stands out thanks to its Eastern aesthetic and particularly intense guitar work.

And with three members from the band’s classic era on board, the musicianship is unsurprisingly on point. The compositions are based more on building textures than riff churning or technical shredding, but the guitar work is electrifying in every context and the rhythm section is just as prominent. The keyboards are bombastic without getting too cheesy and a huskier vocal approach helps avoid the Geoff Tate emulations of memories past.

Old school prog heads may deem such a view blasphemous, but Heir Apparent’s third album may be their best. The vibrant musicianship helps tie The View from Below to the band’s late 80s predecessors, but an emphasis on more introspective songwriting allows for greater consistency. This is an album that could’ve easily come out decades ago, but makes for a refreshing listen in the modern era.

Highlights:
“The Door”
“Here We Aren’t”
“Synthetic Lies”
“The Road to Palestine”

Originally published at http://indymetalvault.com

The Belated Third Signature on the Legacy - 81%

bayern, December 3rd, 2018

Yeah, the reunion vogue is still running on full-throttle… the way it seems to me it’s only Bangkok Procrastinators from the old-timers that haven’t reformed yet... oh, and Chernobyl Radiators, of course.

I was surprised to find out about the release of Seattle’s non-grunge-finest’s latest as new outings have been leaking so sporadically from their camp in the past 20 years that it’s quite easy for one to completely forget about their existence although the band have been in a supposed active mode since 2000.

Well, the guys did get tempted, namely the bass player Derek Peace and the drummer Ray Schwartz, eventually by the fashionable grunge sound that originated from their hometown under the Dr. Unknown moniker, a project that appeared right after the first chapter from the Heir Apparent saga came to an end. A very short spell, with one demo and one EP release in 1993, it was an attempt at mixing the radio-friendly sound that already started showing its head on “One Small Voice” with noisier Aline in Chains-like aesthetics, but this “voice” was never given the chance to get bigger, definitely for the better.

I clearly hear the fans’ most pressing question: has said “voice” gotten any bigger on this third instalment? Well, I’ll take a break now and will reply to it tomorrow in order to keep the suspense longer… kidding of course, here I am pleasing the crowd by saying that no, this new opus has not much to do with the band’s second showing… but it doesn’t sound much closer to the great debut either. So what have our distinguished Seattle residents cooked this time around then?

This is a very atmospheric recording that is built by-and-large on anti-climactic balladic/semi-balladic, frankly doom-laden at times as well, layouts that would immediately bring to mind the Swedish progressive power/doom metallers Veni Domine, and the Australians Neue Regel’s masterpiece “In a Word”. In a word, this is an introspective, not very eventful listen which gets stirred but not really shaken by the two cuts that were already unleashed on a demo in 2003, “Synthetic Lies” being an excellent dramatic power/doomster that nearly captures the spirit of the 90’s Swedish movement (Veni Domine again, but also Memory Garden, Memento Mori, Fifth Reason, etc.) in its entirety. The other track “Savior” is a brisk vivid proto-speedster which winks at the 80’s American power/speed metal scene, and remains the only one of its kind.

I’m almost willing to announce these two blasts from the past the highlights here, but there are other moments worth of interest on this hypnotic album which would still manage to lure the listener into its nearly meditative at times snare not without the help of the new singer Will Shaw whose emotional high-strung clean tenor is a perfect fit to the slow-burning musical setting. As the two mentioned numbers from the demo are placed in the middle, their more boisterous character can even be viewed some kind of a respite although the second half nicely comes alive with the Oriental doomy elegy “The Road to Palestine” and with the more contrived piece of dynamics “Insomnia” which will easily wake up the audience with sweet memories of the debut’s complex, steel-clad veneer.

As a big fan of said debut I was expecting another, more or less “graceful inheritance”, and the first two listens of the album reviewed here did nothing for me; in fact, I was initially ready to pronounce it a bigger upset than the sophomore even… however, this small voice within compelled me to spend more time with it and lo and behold, its serene composed lustre started working its magic on me. The thing is that I always know when to stop before becoming fully bedazzled and start twisting my metallistic sobriety… cause you can’t overwrite one of the epitomes of US power metal regardless of how hypnotic and alluring you bend it this time around.

I don’t know, maybe my understanding of the obligatory “back to the roots” reunion stint has become obsolete now; the bands all have their visions about the development of these new chapters from their career, and repeating old glories, I guess, doesn’t seem like the most viable option out there. And in this particular case at least we don’t have too many reasons to complain about; cause, if you think of it, the addition of a third benevolent signature to an old legacy can only be a plus; it never overwrites the first two, but its presence by all means has its weight especially if the will falls into the right ears… sorry, hands.