I admit this is quite an unorthodox choice for me to cover for my first review in more than a month (I was mostly busy getting this out). Not just because this album was released on the same day as the latest album I reviewed, meaning that if I didn't pick Heimat for a review then it makes even less sense to do it now; but also because I don't have that much of a history with Heaven Shall Burn. But see, here's my reasoning: I discovered Heaven Shall Burn with Veto around the time I first started keeping up with new releases, and since then I have listened to and liked each of their subsequent releases when they were released, including this one. But somehow they didn't leave a lasting impression besides knowing that they do that specific blend and that they're good. Going back over the releases since I've stopped reviewing and stumbling upon this album lead me to see that I'm not the only one who has that issue given the fact that the only review that Heaven Shall Burn have here is of a split album released 20 years ago. So I was curious if I could dive into Heimat independently and untangle some of that.
First off, that album title made me feel very wary. My German nicht so gut ist, so I can't speak for all the nuances of the word, but "Heimat" could loosely be translated as "Homeland", and without further explanations it would be something that would raise a big red flag due to its far-right associations. Thankfully the band was pretty quick to make sure the waters are cleared with the Bandcamp statement in that the title is "not meant as the narrow-minded end point in the sense it has been used by agitators and populists, but the starting point for observations and perspectives". Just like Of Truth & Sacrifice, the cover art is a commissioned painting done by Eliran Kantor. The stag is something you'd be more likely to see in some kitsch romantic painting in an art museum, usually to show off the lord's skills at hunting and taming the land, but is shown here in anguish at the destruction of nature. Its "heimat", so to speak. It's the kind of thing that makes me wish the album was more overtly conceptual than its contents ended up being.
Since Invictus (Part III: The Final Resistance), the gap between albums has only gotten wider, with the five years since Of Truth & Sacrifice being the longest so far. The latter was also a double album, so Heimat employs a similar "making up for lost time" strategy by having the core album be a manageable 50 minutes, but then including bonus tracks as a special Keinen Schritt Zurück EP, one that thus far hasn't been released independently of this album's deluxe edition, and that adds an extra 15 minutes to it. If the album's title and cover art might've raised some suspicion, the inclusion of a cover of Endstand's "Destroy Fascism" on that EP should dismiss them. Even if that EP is three thirds covers, I do recommend going for it, but it feels odd to listen to straight after the main album.
Without drawing too many comparisons to the band's previous material, most of it is built around the "Gothenburg" strand of melodic death metal, and it really feels like scales are tipped towards this side of the band's side more than the melodic metalcore one (which explains why they are on Metal-Archives). What I didn't expect is how the symphonic elements get to stretch beyond their obvious use in the mood-setting intro track, with the bookending "War Is the Father of All" having a pretty strong presence of strings and choirs and "Inter Arma" feeling the end credits to a tragic story, hence why following it up with the EP right after kinda breaks that flow, especially with the language change.
Harsh and aggressive as it still is, a lot of the songs rely on that "melodic" side of the melodic death metal / melodic metalcore blend, so you'll find melodic guitar riffs on the album galore. In songs like "Ten Days In May" there's a slight traditional metal touch to those melodies that stands out in contrast with the usual aggressiveness of the album. The vocals have a very specific raspiness regardless of whether they're growled, rasped or shouted, and while that doesn't necessarily make them feel too monotonous because of the different ways they're used, the fact that the songwriting is melodic but not overly chorus-focused makes it so that the listening experience isn't too full of surprises but also doesn't build a lot of familiarity either. Each time I listened to Heimat, I loved the heavy riffing and the melodies, but the sense of familiarity I had with it wasn't the "I heard this song before" one, but "I heard something like this before" one, with the song that had the most staying power in my head afterwards ironically being the Killswitch Engage cover that features their singer.
I revisited Heimat in hopes that this will make Heaven Shall Burn properly click with me. That didn't really happen, though I suspect perhaps I'm still a couple of listens short.
