Heaven Shall Burn
Whatever It May Take

THE REVIEW

I looked for it everywhere and I couldn't find it. No luck. Not even on the most hidden and obscure corners of the internet was I able to find a review of "Whatever It May Take," even though its successor "Antigone" (a splendid album, by the way) has received enthusiastic reviews from everywhere. Only and exclusively comments like "immense album," or "a milestone in metalcore", and so on. Yes, agreed, but a review? I couldn't accept the idea that an album like this was at risk of going unnoticed by many, just because it was by a not-so-famous band like Heaven Shall Burn, so I decided to write one myself.

Yet "Whatever It May Take", in a certain way, is important. Because it too helped to further narrow that thin gap separating hardcore from the purest metal, to better define the concept of "metal-core" by redefining many characteristics, but not only that. Heaven Shall Burn didn't just do what many modern bands dabbling in this genre tend to do, which is to take some riffs from Swedish melodic death (like the later In Flames) and mix it with a good base of old school hardcore, add some typically death rhythms and mix it all with a dose of modern thrash. Heaven Shall Burn has much to teach in this field simply because they have something extra. Something that these thousands of young bands choosing to follow this path sometimes lack, sometimes slightly, sometimes entirely: personality. A riff by Heaven Shall Burn is not easily confused with that of another band, despite the reciprocal imitation being a daily occurrence in metal-core. It is therefore not difficult to imagine how "Whatever It May Take" has become a veritable cornerstone of the genre, the result of a group destined not to be influenced, but to influence.

It all starts with a strange intro that feels very much like a 70s horror film (to be honest, the strange intro seems to be a quirk for this group): shortly, what will be unleashed in the speakers of your stereo will be a wave of granite riffs, thrashy structures in palm-mute, accelerations that resemble the angriest Napalm Death, a base of pure hardcore violence, and above all continuous time changes, perfectly interwoven with each other, that between one headbanging and another cannot but please the ears of the most uncompromising metal fans. But it's not just this: it is not a sterile and colorless sequence of riffs, no matter how engaging they may be. "Whatever It May Take" has a soul: the soul of those who harbor anger, of those who seek to "burning the heavens" of moral convictions, of institutional securities. The group puts their soul in here, with absolute love and spontaneity, essential in a world where many metal-core records seem to lack these qualities. Hence the melody insinuates itself into every riff, full of emotional charge, and intense melodic intertwines, almost choral, rise from the power of the guitars, from Marcus's furious voice, which lets out his increasingly poignant cry. "Whatever It May Take" is in my opinion an almost-masterpiece for the entire metal-core genre, weak only due to that greenness that deprived it of the charisma necessary to break through (it is precisely this weakness that prevents me from giving it a 5). If you just want to understand what it means to play metal-core today with full awareness, make it yours. A magnificent band, an unmissable album.