Heaven Shall Burn Antigone

Despite the fact that Heaven Shall Burn plays European style metal-core, I am always willing to give their new discs a listen. The reason is that they have been one of the foremost bands in the genre for the last few years, yet get very little credit. They certainly aren't the most original band out there, but they have been around longer than 90% of bands playing the stuff. They're sort of like the Hatebreed of European metalcore in that you don't necessarily love them or their records, but you can't help but respect the fact that they're terrific at what they do. The problem is that as this style gets more and more played out, the innovators don't seem capable of a positive evolution. "Antigone" is the fourth LP in six years from this German powerhouse and it doesn't stray too far from the band's established sound, which they describe as "a mixture of Earth Crisis/the Haunted/At the Gates and the almighty Bolt Thrower." This is a pretty dead-on description, except that each of those bands were able to create at least one ground-breaking album in their career. Heaven Shall Burn has certainly been responsible for some solid releases, "Antigone" being yet another, but I can't help but feel like I've been waiting a long time for them to make that one great record. The noticeable changes to this record from their previous releases are a definite step up in production quality and a resulting crushing low-end sound. Even with my sub-woofer turned down low, the bass and percussion on this record was pounding. The vocals are a fairly standard cross between Tomas Lindberg and Marco Aro. The band tries to sneak some clever musical flourishes into the record, some of which work better than others, most notably the piano line in "Numbing The Pain," which makes this one of the disc's most memorable tracks when coupled with the accompanying guitar riff. Others, including the rather boring intro, just seem superfluous on what is otherwise a stream-lined slab of metal-core. Any fan of the genre would have to be crazy to deny the quality of this record, but might have to be equally crazy to argue that this band has done anything new here. Bottom Line: Heaven Shall Burn have put out yet another technically solid release, but the burning question remains: Will they ever make their leap from a great metal band to the musical tour-de-force they seem capable of being "Antigone" is as good as any of their earlier releases, but just doesn't take that crucial step forward that I expect bands to take when writing a new record. I suppose the old "If it ain't broke..." adage probably applies here, but it sure would be nice to hear Heaven Shall Burn put out one of those records you just can't stop listening to. "Antigone" might not be it, but it's still an accomplished album.