''Empire of the Blind'' is the fourth studio album by American
thrash metal
Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...
band
Heathen, released on September 18, 2020.
It is the band's first album in 11 years, following ''
The Evolution of Chaos'' (2009), the first to feature Jason Mirza and Jim DeMaria on bass and drums respectively, and their first release on
Nuclear Blast
Nuclear Blast is a record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label mov ...
.
Background
Although recording had not officially commenced until 2019, Heathen began working on the follow-up to ''The Evolution of Chaos'' in 2012 after they signed to Nuclear Blast. For the remaining seven years, the band was sidetracked by lineup changes, individual projects, and guitarist Kragen Lum filling in for
Gary Holt in
Exodus
Exodus or the Exodus may refer to:
Religion
* Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible
* The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan
Historical events
* Ex ...
whenever Holt was touring with
Slayer
Slayer was an American thrash metal band from Huntington Park, California. The band was formed in 1981 by guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, drummer Dave Lombardo and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya. Slayer's fast and aggressive musical style ...
. In a September 2020 interview with
KMUW radio, Lum recalled: "By about 2014 I had half the record completely demoed with vocals and everything. I continued to write over the next few years but I more or less too busy to demo it and properly finish the songs. I was touring with Exodus pretty heavily from about 2015 until 2019. Whenever we had a long enough break, I would work on stuff but it just really wasn't until last year where I had enough time to finish writing and I had more than enough for an album. There's a song that we actually didn't even record."
Reception
''Empire of the Blind'' was released to positive reviews from critics. Paul Hutchings of ''The Razor's Edge'' described the album as "top drawer with plenty of detail and thought applied", and stated, "The production of the album is slick and sharp, with engineering, production, mixing and mastering by
Christopher 'Zeuss' Harris with additional work by Lum. Of course, without the music this is all irrelevant. Thankfully, ''Empire of the Blind'' meats all the expectations and more. Superbly performed, this is an album that should feature highly in the top albums of the year."
Track listing
Personnel
Heathen
* David White – lead vocals
*
Lee Altus
Lee Altus is a Ukrainian-American heavy metal guitarist currently playing in Exodus and Heathen.
Career
Altus first came to public attention in the mid-1980s with his original band, Heathen. He served as the principal songwriter and a fou ...
– guitars
* Kragen Lum – guitars, backing vocals
* Jason Mirza – bass
* Jim DeMaria – drums
Additional musicians
*
Gary Holt – guitar solo
* Rick Hunolt – guitar solo
*
Doug Piercy
''Doug Piercy'' is an American heavy metal guitarist. He played in the San Francisco heavy metal band Anvil Chorus in the early 1980s. Playing in Control briefly, he eventually moved on to his best-known project, Heathen, in 1985. Piercy share ...
– guitar solo
*
Zeuss
Christopher Harris (born April 1, 1972), known professionally as Zeuss, is an American record producer, mixer, guitarist, composer, and songwriter.
Biography
Zeuss is best known in the worlds of hard rock, heavy metal music, hardcore punk, and ...
– backing vocals
Production and design
* Zeuss – production, recording , engineering, mixing, mastering
* Kragen Lum – recording , art direction, layout
* Juan Urteaga – recording
* Doug Piercy – recording
*
Travis Smith – artwork
* Alvin Petty – logo
* Chrissie Dieu – photography
Charts
References
{{Authority control
Heathen (band) albums
2020 albums