Band:	Heathendom
Album:	The Symbolist
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	February 2011

01. Endistancement By The Null Position
02. Alternate Sickness
03. The Symbolist
04. My Obedience
05. Black Euphoria
06. Sanctified
07. The Concept Of Reason
08. Die Insane
09. Prescience Of The End
10. An Angel A Demon And A Dying God

For once, it's actually damn exciting to hear somebody not playing the safest cards possible. After enough blandness in your life, your initial reaction to being presented with yet another power metal band begins to turn from defeat, to frustration. It's less about crappy bands by that point, and you begin to question the logic behind the people that signed them to their label. Well, I'm no financial adviser, but I have to say, someone definitely had their ear to the ground for this one.

The deeper you delve into this album the more apparent it becomes that Heathendom doesn't play according to pre-set templates. In fact, this has to be some of the most un-melodic power metal I've ever come across! It seems like it's a conscious effort to break away from that copy-paste rhythm-tracks-underneath-epic-leads cookie-cutter garbage. Basically, take your heaviest Judas Priest segments, chop them up in some random places, then rearrange them. Then take those segments, doomify the fast parts, thrash up the slow parts, then play the mid-paced segments backwards...Damn, it actually gets pretty exciting! This is to regular power metal what Wario is to Super Mario. Darker, a little cracked and chaotic, but still very reminiscent of the original character.

For better or worse, it seems to lack the typical sound that draws people in to power metal. As enjoyable as it is to hear a band break away from the influence of strict genre-guidelines, some aspects could have easily been included; like a more direct song approach. Being crazy and erratic is fun to a certain extent, but it only goes so far. Eventually The Symbolist does become pretty aimless. Overall though, who wouldn't take 6 tracks of ingenuity over 12 tracks of mediocrity?