Band:	Havok
Album:	Burn
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	June 02, 2009
Guest review by:	Zombie

01. Wreckquiem
02. The Root Of Evil
03. The Path To Nowhere
04. Morbid Symmetry
05. Identity Theft
06. The Disease
07. Scabs Of Trust
08. Ivory Tower
09. To Hell
10. Category Of The Dead
11. Melting The Mountain
12. Afterburner

Havok redefined my taste in thrash metal. They proved that brilliance in songwriting can compensate for superior -out of this world- technical skills. Burn is a prime example of simple, non-complicated, yet fine-crafted piece of music that goes into thrash metal history, and maybe in the curriculum of "how to play thrash metal" class !

This album has everything; fast gallops, slow head-banging riffs, atmospheric "blackened" parts, melody, fast solos, the video-game finger-tapping, janitor-class sweep-picking, painful pinch-harmonics, rumbling bass-lines, thrashy non-extreme vocals, no head-crushing screaming, nor mellow singing, all blending into one consistent piece of art that blows me away. And the thing is, the lack of long shreds, tracks-long of bass drums, and other showing off of skills is what makes this album different than its counterparts, and is compensated by innovation and excellence in songwriting, each track is loaded with a handful of riffs that could be made into separate tracks if repeated over and over, but not with Havok. They're not savers at all and they put everything they've got into Burn.

They surely didn't rush the album, gave it it's time to come out as the masterpiece it is, they remind of Artillery / Exhorder / Kreator / and in some parts early Megadeth. Yes, Burn could be featured in poll against Rust in Piece and would score quite some votes too!

When you listen to the album you get that raw vibe, that bay area original sound you've missed for so long. You know, that sound of bay area bands when they decided to bring up the act and change their "amateur" status into pioneers of a genre. Yes, this is exactly the sound you're thinking about, musicians throwing everything they've got to make awesome debut albums, even if they still can't shred like Malmsteen or Petrucci, they'd jerk off with the whammy bar to get cool sounding solos and play simple riffs at fast pace with alternating palm mutes and adding some pinches.. that kind of stuff that would overwhelm the listener.

The production of the album isn't too Trivium-polished, nor Black Metal-cheesy, it is just perfect, no Roadrunner studio recording tricks, nor recording in your own bathroom with a microphone and a double-deck cassette tape kinda thing.. just the decent acceptable average.

I urge everyone to go out and buy that album to see what I'm talking about, as I probably can't find the proper words to describe it and give it the praise it truly deserves. I've had the CD in my car for weeks now and I just can't get enough of it.