It takes some real skill to pull off heavy metal with a progressive twist, every single unit needs to be firing at virtuoso capacity and that’s without bringing in other genres. When bands begin to involve other sounds, things can get a little complicated… not to Blackhearth as the Basque band have delivered their highly anticipated sophomore album ‘The Wrath of God’.
Blackhearth delivered their superb self-titled debut album in 2019, it was a going to be a tough call to repeat that feat, but with ‘The Wrath of God’, Blackhearth have managed it. This is an album of classic sounding heavy metal; it shreds like a bastard and reminds the listener of exactly why they got into this music in the first place. ‘The Wrath of God’ is a powerful album of high-quality musicianship that excels at every corner; tracks such as ‘My Bornless Child’ and ‘Rotten to the Core’ hammer with all the authenticity of Symphony X, Alcatrazz and Witherfall as vocalist Alain Concepción delivers a performance worthy of Russell Allen fighting with Jørn Lande and Ronnie Romero. This gains further appeal with some superb harmonised back vocals that bring a real Romeo/LePond feel to the music. Furthermore, the addition of the mighty Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens on the title track really sticks some metal up your ass.
Once again, Blackhearth have hit the nail on the head, this is truly a progressive heavy metal beast that fans of the old school will love, they will play it over and over again and it is worth every minute.
