Band:	Heaving Earth
Album:	Darkness Of God
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	May 2022

01. Violent Gospels (Ordination Of The Holy Trinity)
02. Crossing The Great Divide (Prayer To A Crumbling Shrine)
03. Apologetics (Of Failure And Fall)
04. Forever Deceiving Abysmal Gods
05. Cardinal Sin
06. The Lord's Lamentations
07. Earthly Kingdom Of God In Ruins
08. Flesh-Ridden Providence
09. Woeful Redemption

They may be named after a Morbid Angel song, but Heaving Earth are very much a modern death metal band.

Heaving Earth are a product of the Czech metal scene, one that seems to be fairly incestuous, given that multiple current or ex-members of the group have former or current ties with Brutally Deceased and Supreme Conception. That fact is aided by there being a sizeable number of former members of Heaving Earth, particularly now that almost the whole band has been replaced since 2015’s Denouncing The Holy Throne, from which guitarist and bandleader Tomáš Halama is the only survivor. Not everyone has been fully replaced, as there is still a void in the permanent drummer position; instead, drum duties on Darkness Of God were covered by session musician Giulio Galati, better known for his work with Hideous Divinity and Nero Di Marte, and it’s those connections that might give a clue of what type of death Heaving Earth veer towards.

There’s certainly some Morbid Angel to be heard on Darkness Of God, and arguably even more Immolation. However, the overriding approach across the album is a dissonant, technical form of death metal. Skip to any moment on the album and you’re likely to hear sharp, dissonant, high-pitched guitar, whether in the form of aggressive tremolo or slightly more spacious arpeggiated chords. Nero Di Marte have dabbled extensively with dissonance in their time, but the aggressive force that drives most of this album takes Heaving Earth closer to the likes of Ulcerate.

There’s more to Darkness Of God than jagged dissonant tremoloing, however; there’s a fair chunk of this album that falls right into tech-death territory. “Violent Gospels (Ordination Of The Holy Trinity)” trades off ballistic assaults with more complex, convoluted riffing, and this balance of pure fury with more elaborate passages persists across the album. The third key element of this album is the lead guitar work, which eschews the hellish madness of Trey Azagthoth’s solos in favor of something a tad more melodic and a lot cleaner. “Crossing The Great Divide (Prayer To A Crumbling Shrine)” serves as a particularly good example of this, with multiple exciting scene-stealing solo sections adding an extra emotional touch to the savagery surrounding them.

By now, you’ll have a pretty strong idea of what to expect from Darkness Of God; there are brief scene-setting moments of quiet, and Heaving Earth do take breaks from full-pelt attack mode to drop into slower, groovier riffs, with both of these things exhibited well on “The Lord’s Lamentations”, but for the vast majority, you’ll be listening to either dissonant maelstroms, technical ambition or pyrotechnic guitar leads. Still, those are all pretty good things to listen to when performed well, and they are indeed delivered adeptly by the new-look Heaving Earth. Perhaps the key weapon in Darkness Of God’s arsenal is the aforementioned session drumming of Galati, whose jackhammer brutality is tempered with some sophisticated arrangements when not unleashing full-intensity blasts.

Darkness Of God isn’t necessarily an elite-tier dissonant death album; there’s a lack of either the memorability of Dormant Ordeal’s last album or Ulcerate’s unrivalled atmosphere that means it doesn’t necessarily leave the strongest impression once it's over, but for while it lasts, this is an impressive tour de force of modern death metal.